The Paths Less Travelled
by Ali Sama
Summary: A Babylon 5 / Star Trek /Dead LIke me Crossover. chapter 5 is up, I may update it as I will go through and edit it.
1. Disclaimer

**NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.**

---------------------COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-----------

"Star Trek", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and "Star Trek: Enterprise" and all related Star Trek related material, it's characters and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television shows and movies, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by Paramount Studios and whatever Corporation it may or may not be owned by.

Babylon Five", it's characters, certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, Babylon 5, characters, names, and all related media are trademarks of Time Warner Entertainment Co., LP.

Any direct dialogue or scene taken from episodes of babylon 5 is the intellectual property of J.M.S or the respective writer of the Episode.

Dead Like Me, It's characters, plot devices and any references to such are owned by MGM and showtime.

Lord of the Rings, The hobbit, and all the other works related to it are copyrighted to J.R.R Tolkein.

Additional characters are the creation of the author(s) who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.

THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY 'untitled' IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS NOTICE MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIIS STORY

---------------------COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-----------

Chapters 1-4 of this story are co-authored by adm-frb and Ali-Sama

Chapters 5 onwards are by Ali-Sama

Chapters in this story use a mix of both British English and American English.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

_Events take place due to actions and reactions of the system. They take shape, eventually residing in our collective consciousness. They form our memories, our knowledge, our hopes and our fears. For they reside within us; they can influence, reshape, throw out of balance, and destroy. Their motions and patterns are governed by their creator's intent, they can be brilliant, unpredictable, scattered across the cosmos. In one word: beautiful. Only by artificial means do the patterns become cyclic. Only when artificially forced, do they form a perfect circle._

_ A perfect circle is similar to the mother's womb. It is safe, warm, comfortable, and most of all predictable. Just as all lifeforms must leave the womb once they are able in order to live, so should it be with the perfect circle. No one is perfect, nor should perfection be forced upon anyone. It will come in time, with reason, compassion and action._

_ The questions asked, "What do you want?", "Who are you?" and eventually, "Why are you here?" and "Where are you going?" So many questions, so many views, so much confusion. All you have to ask is, "Why are you?"_

**June 6****th****, 2155**

On the bridge of the starship _Enterprise_, a flagship of both the Earth Starfleet and the fledgling Coalition of Planets, Captain Jonathan Archer gripped the arms of his command chair. Enterprise bucked around him. On the main view screen, all he could see was a roiling miasma of blue lights winking in and out of existence, and the _Columbia_, Earth's second NX-class starship.

"They look like electrons circling an atom," he mused.

The multitude of electronic sounds he could hear surged in intensity at the science and communications stations on the left side of the bridge.

"Captain, the graviton count appears to be fluctuating more rapidly," announced Commander T'Pol, science and executive officer, Vulcan and one of the only two non-humans currently serving aboard the ship.

As she spoke, she looked up from her viewer. "If my readings are accurate, they are increasing both in frequency and intensity."

"Are we in any danger?" Lieutenant Reed asked quietly in his distinctive British accent.

"Sir," Lieutenant Sato glanced towards Archer. She had touched her hand to the small earpiece she usually wore when at her station. "I've a message from Captain Hernandez. She feels we should err on the side of caution and gain some distance from the surge."

"How long before they might pose a threat?" Archer said, looking over at T'Pol.

"Twenty-eight seconds."

"Cutting it a bit close, don't you think?"

Archer nodded back at his armoury officer. "Accelerate full reverse, Travis. Try and keep her steady. Inform the _Colombia_ of our actions."

Ensign Mayweather, the helmsman and navigations officer, entered a series of commands into the helm. "Aye, sir. Accelerating at point zero two impulse."

"At that delta V ," T'Pol was checking a readout, "we'll be clear of the anomaly in twenty-three seconds."

**O-O-O**

For all intents, the Wolf 359 system was of no importance to anyone any more. Fifteen years earlier it had been a deep space rendezvous point for _EarthForce_ during the Earth-Minbari War. Now though, it was abandoned. All that remained of it it was a small marker - a hyperspace beacon - and a network of early warning satellites left behind, just in case it should ever be needed again. Not once had the early warning system ever been set off. Now though, it detected a momentary energy surge and bloom of light. As programmed, it sent off an alert to the beacon which in turn began sending a tachyon signal to its masters in a star system just over seven light-years away.

**O-O-O**

"T'Pol," Archer asked, glaring at the Enterprise's view screen and star field visible on it, "was that a wormhole we just encountered?" The shaking had stopped.

"Possibly," T'Pol agreed, studying her readouts. "However it did not behave like any wormhole that the Vulcan High Command has ever encountered. It had no real central point or focus, neither did it seem to lead to another star system. In fact, we're still in the Wolf 359 star system."

"Captain," Mayweather sounded little startled as he watched the view screen. "The stars... they're not where they're supposed to be."

"You are sure we're still in the Wolf 359 star system?" Archer queried T'Pol as he rose from his command chair to have a closer look at the view screen. As he studied the view screen, he began to realise what Mayweather meant. There were stars which simply did not belong, others, the few they could recognize, were slightly off-position.

"Yes, as far as I can gauge from the readings," T'Pol said clearly.

Archer nodded, then another thought drifted across his mind. _Stellar drift_, he thought to himself. _Stars drift over time_. Staying where he was, he glanced over to the science station. "T'Pol," he queried again. Not particularly liking where his train of thought was leading him. "Am I right in saying that stars drift over time?"

T'Pol knew at once exactly what the captain was implying. Had he said the same thing a couple of years ago, she would never even have considered the possibility. But after their two trips back in time during the Xindi mission, her disbelief in the possibility of time travel had changed. _But, that was into the past_, she thought to herself as she considered the line of thought the captain was having. "Are you suggesting, we've been displaced in time again? That would still not account for their positions. Their relative positions should be the same, some of the shifts are way too radical to account for."

"I'm not suggesting anything," he paused. "Overlay a view of the stars before our little trip through the anomaly, the wormhole." Turning back to the view screen, he saw an image of the stars from before they encountered the anomaly overlay the current live feed from the external images. "Now, factor in stellar drift and show us how it would change over time."

Around him, everyone's gaze was fixed on the view screen. As T'Pol worked at her station following Archers instructions, the positions of the stars changed with each new image. The stars, he noted was getting closer to the current live feed with every change, though that did not account for the new stars nor the lack of known stars. "Stop," Archer instructed T'Pol on the eleventh image change. "Go back in one year increments and stop when we make an approximate match of the stars we know of."

The image changed a few times more then stopped again. The overlay was now a perfect match.

"The overlay..." T'Pol glanced up at Archer, "...is showing how the stars should appear from this position in roughly hundred and five years time."

"Are you saying," Reed was incredulous, "we've been transported forward in time."

"It sure looks like it," Archer agreed.

"This can't be right," Sato said quietly as she tapped at the controls of her station.

Archer frowned. It always worried him when one of his junior officers came out with a remark like that. "What's not right?"

She turned away from her station and looked straight at him. "I'm not receiving anything on the subspace radio."

"You mean you can't get in touch with Starfleet?" Archer asked.

"No," Sato explained. "I'm not receiving anything; it is very eerie. Usually there's background noise, static, or interference on the normally active channels. I have to compensate for when receiving subspace communications. It usually is generated by any species that use subspace radio. The only thing generating subspace noise is The _Columbia. _We should be gettingsignals from our network in this area. There's no one out there using subspace radio! Either we lost the war or we're in another universe..."

**O-O-O**

The bridge of the _Columbia_ was a flurry of activity, the senior officers trying to determine what had happened during the trip through the wormhole.

"I knew it! We should have sent a probe first," the short brown eyed blonde at the small communications station swore quietly. "Archer's too curious for his own good ."

"Want another trip to the brig, Lieutenant?" Commander Sean Ramius cautioned from where she stood, her hands resting on the metal railing behind the command chair. It was a well known fact, that Ramius and Hernandez, her commanding officer, ran a tight well disciplined ship.

"Have you tried the checking upper bands yet, Lieutenant Lass?" Captain Erika Hernandez asked, raising her voice.

"She called you _Lass_, George," Major John Connor whispered quietly Lass's ear. "I don't think she's that happy with you."

"Fuck off," Lass whispered back. "And only my _friends_ get to call me George."

"Bit touchy, the boy friend dump you?" Conner gave her a lop sided grin.

"Don't make me contemplate life in prison. It's very tempting right now." her eyes shouted murder turning a chill down Connor's spine. A feeling that he had just tempted death and lucky survived.

"Ma'am," Lass said feeling slightly cowed. "We're getting a communique from _Enterprise_. They say they believe the anomaly has somehow displaced us into the future." Lowering her voice, she added in a hushed voice. "Oh, that's just fraking great."

"Bloody hell," Conner muttered aloud.

Sitting in her command chair, Hernandez touched a control on her armrest. "Captain to Engineering. Mr. Dax, how are things holding up down there?"

"Engineering here," Engineer Tobin Dax's voice, the ship's new Trill engineer and member of the Interspecies Engineering Exchange, faltered through the intercom. "The warp core is stable. Impulse reactors are running optimally-" Dax's voice broke off as the umph sound of two people bumping together could be heard. "Sorry."

"Sure everything is okay? Hernandez asked.

"Yes, ma'am," came a new melodic sounding voice. It was Lieutenant Alexa Folie; Hernandez's armoury and security officer. "I just accidentally ran into Mr. Dax. We're both fine except for a bump on the head."

Hernandez smiled, knowing it was probably the other way around. Tobin had an uncanny tendency to not look where he was going. "Be careful you two."

A few decks below in engineering, Lieutenant Folie was talking to Dax. "Tobin, you don't have to apologise every minute you know?" Alexa said comforting the nervous engineer.

"Yeah, I know and I'm sorry." Noticing her gaze, he looked down at the gnawed fingernails.

"And stop biting your nails! That's a bad habit you've got there," Alexa scolded Tobin.

Reaching out for the intercom, she called up the bridge.

"Captain," Hernandez was listening to Folie's intercom filtered voice, "Mr. Dax and myself are going to inspect the weapons systems. We'll be in the armoury if you need us."

"Good, keep me informed." Hernandez said closing the channel as she directed her gaze to the view of _Enterprise_ on the view screen at the fore of the bridge.

"Ma'am, we may have a bigger problem than we thought." The blonde haired Lieutenant Commander Samantha 'Sam' McCoy said from the science station, braking the momentary silence.

"What is it?" Hernandez and Ramius went over to her station.

"We aren't in the future; it seems we've been displaced in space not time."

"I thought," Ramius asked her, sounding perplexed, "we identified this system as Wolf 359?"

"Yes, ma'am. Most of the local stars around Sol do correlate with what we know of the Milky Way." McCoy touched a few controls, activating a map of of the local cluster of galaxies, which promptly appeared. "We are here, the Milky Way is here."

"The Triangulum galaxy?" Hernandez said studying the display.

"Yes, ma'am. We're currently over three million light years away from home... and possibly in the future."

"Bugger," Hernandez heard the commander of the ship's Maco detachment, Major John Connor, say. He'd apparently overheard the whole thing.

**O-O-O**

"How could we have missed this?" Archer's annoyance resonated across the _Enterprise's_ bridge, irritating Commander T'Pol. While he knew that like most Vulcans, she was an accomplished individual and was versed in logic ergo, a good science officer. Her training, however was primarily as a diplomat with speciality training in intelligence.

At the science science station, T'Pol focused on suppressing the emotion she felt rising within her which she found much harder now than she used too; a result of an addiction she had gained to Trellium-D during the Xindi mission. She had overcome that addiction now, but the psychological effects of the addiction would never leave her.

"Although a good amount of the stars within this galaxy do correspond to stars in our own; there was no way to really identify this galaxy. All the information we have on this galaxy is over three million years old."

"You mean the light speed barrier?" Archer guessed.

"Yes," T'Pol confirmed. "when we look at this galaxy from our own, it is the galaxy from over three million years ago, due to the amount of time it takes light to travel from there to here." An image of a spiral galaxy showed up on her display. "That is our Milky Way galaxy from over three million years ago. You can even see the nebula in the Mutara sector which is estimated to be in the order of several million years old."

"It's like we're looking into the past," Mayweather glanced at from the helm with a faint smile.

"Essentially, yes." T'Pol confirmed.

"Hoshi," Archer commanded, "hail _Columbia_. Tell Captain Hernandez I want a staff meeting in one hour."

**O-O-O**

Stepping into _Enterprise_'s mess hall, Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III, glanced around. It was fairly quiet. He looked for _Columbia_'s chief medical officer and spotted her near one of the view ports staring out into space. "Err... Hi," Trip said tentatively as he approached her, not really wanting to disturb her. "I heard _Columbia_ had a Vulcan doctor." He paused a moment. "I was wondering if I could talk to you, Doctor T'Ru?"

"Sure, and it's Tru, not T'Ru. My full name is Tru Summers. But, please just call me Tru." The Vulcan pointed to a seat at the nearest round table. On it Trip could see a padd and a mug of steaming hot coffee. It looked to have been topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

"That's an Earth name," Trip said, taking the seat directly opposite her.

"Yes, it is." Tru had gotten used to getting attention due to her vulcan appearance.

"Wow, who would have thought," Trip paused again as he tried to think how to put it. "Well, I need some advice and I hear you have a psychology degree."

"Yes," Tru acknowledged as she wondered where he was going with this.

"Everything I say is confidential right? You won't report to High Council, if we ever get back?"

"No," Tru confirmed. "Do you see a Vulcan uniform, Commander? I am a citizen of Earth, born and raised in California. I have no loyalties to Vulcan also my Hippocratic oath prevents me from such things Mr. Tucker."

"Call me Trip."

"Okay Trip, what is the problem?"

"I believe I am in a relationship, but I'm not sure how it is headed."

_God, _Tru thought. _He thinks I'm a full Vulcan, at least he doesn't think I am a vulcan fan girl who got surgery to look vulcan._ Outwardly, she asked. "Can you elaborate?"

Trip flushed. "Well, I can sense that she likes me, I like her a lot as well."

Seeing the signs with his body language, she asked, "Have you consummated your relationship?"

The flush went a deeper shade of red. "Yes, a few times."

"So who is the lucky girl?"

"Umm... Commander T'Pol," Trip said quietly.

"Not an answer I expected." She paused. "Vulcans do have emotions, though they deny it. Some are better at hiding than others."

"So you're a Vulcan who doesn't hide emotion?" Trip enquired curiously.

"Something like that." Tru nodded.

"Wouldn't the Vulcans frown upon a relationship like ours?"

"Not as much as before V'Las was removed from power. It depends on her family. Some families are more open minded then others. I am surprised your relationship has gotten to a physical level. Vulcans rarely partake in the pleasures of the flesh unless it is to procreate."

"Huh?" Trip raised an eyebrow, a very Vulcan-like expression.

"It means that she really likes you Trip," Tru said.

This brought a light in his eye . "Speaking of procreation. Would our children be accepted? Would they be normal? I want to have kids."

"Yes, you can have children," Tru again confirmed. "You suffered a loss recently, I can see it in your face."

"Yeah my sister," Trip said a little sadly. "Elizabeth, she was all I had for family."

"And that baby," Tru added, having read the dossier. "I am sorry for your loss." She paused, wanting to respect his pain. "I would not worry about having children. Now I want you to promise me something in return."

"What?" Trip asked curious.

"Confidentiality on your part."

"You're keeping my secret, I'll keep yours," Trip nodded.

Making sure Trip was observing, Tru took a hair pin and pricked her finger. The look of shock was apparent on Trips face.

"My grandfather crash-landed on Earth..." as Tru spoke, Trip listened intently. "...in a small town, where he met my grandmother. I am only a quarter Vulcan, though my appearance is more Vulcan. My brother looks human and he has copper based blood unlike me. it's ironic how genetics work."

"So wasn't that a story?" Trip said; he remembered the tale T'Pol had told himself and Captain Archer. "Carbon Creek?"

"You heard about Carbon Creek?" It was Tru's turn to be surprised.

"Yes," Trip told her. "T'Pol said her great grandmother was there. She said it was just a story."

"I'll definitely have to talk to T'Pol then." Tru decided.

Trip studied her face, noting the decidedly non-Vulcan features in her face. "I was wondering how you got the light hazel green eyes."

"Yes, I get it from my mother; also my hair colour." She took out a picture from what seemed to be a small binder.

"Wow," he looked at the raven-haired beauty with hazel green eyes.

"Thank you for compliment."

"Are you a vegetarian?" Trip asked, his curiosity peeked.

"No, I am addicted to cheese steak sandwiches, something my brother hates." Tru smiled; making a crewman at the drinks dispenser look over at them oddly. "Though he did learn how to make them just for me. _He's_ a vegetarian you see."

"Brotherly love," he mused. "Do you miss him?"

"Yeah, he's my older brother." Tru informed Trip. She paused. "I miss him, he is quite the fanboy"

**O-O-O**

An hour after Captain Archer called for the staff meeting, the senior officers of the _Columbia_ entered the _Enterprise_'s conference room to start the meeting. Noticing Tru enter the room, Trip motioned for her to sit next to him, which earned a stare from T'Pol.

"Looks like she is jealous," Tru whispered in his ear.

"You can read her pretty well, it took me a while to notice her moods." Trip pushed his chair back. "Want something to drink Doctor Summers?" he raised his voice.

"Coffee, half-and-half with whipping cream on top, please."

"Will do," he got up to get her the drink, the glare not breaking from T'Pol, despite her sipping her green tea, trying to not show anything.

Tru grabbed a chip from the tray, "Lime flavoured potato chips."

"I thought Vulcans didn't like touching their food?" Archer asked taking his seat at the head of the table; opposite Captain Hernandez.

"We don't. We also don't drink milk products," T'Pol looked disapprovingly at Tru.

"Vulcan's don't act like jealous girlfriends either," George's comment caused T'Pols silence as she brooded in her tea. Tru smirked at her friend.

"Ouch," Trip gave her the cup. "Boy, does she has a mouth on her," he whispered to Tru.

"That she does," Tru nodded. "It's gotten her in_ Columbia'_'s brig a couple times. Wait till you see her collection of 20th century antiques, it's extravagant."

"Wow," Trip's eyes glossed in envy.

"Captain Archer," Hernandez said from across the table. Do you want to start this meeting? It is your ship?"

"Ladies first," Archer grinned.

Hernandez nodded. "We are in a grim situation," she continued more formally. "As Lieutenant Commander McCoy and Commander T'Pol have found out, we are not only over three million light years from Earth, but possibly in the future as well. We need to either find a way to reopen the wormhole to go back home, or we be forced to make a home here."

"Have we gotten anything new on sensors?" Archer asked.

"We did find an awful lot of tachyon emissions," Sam started with T'Pol adding, "they appear to be artificial in nature."

"Could they be responsible for us being stranded here?" Reed pipped in.

"We are investigating that," the data appeared on the various padds and the two view screens on either end of the room.

"Could this be a television or radio signal?" Lass commented.

"Who would broadcast television or radio using tachyons?" Conner voiced.

"She may be on to something," Ensign Sato's excited voice chipped. "When we isolate the signals, they form patterns, similar to those we used to use in the broadcast of television concurrent with the early 21st Century."

"Ensign Sato, why don't you work with Lieutenant Lass on this," T'Pol paused. "If they use tachyons for communication, maybe we can find a local power to help us."

"I would like Lieutenant Commander McCoy and Commander T'Pol to investigate the area of the wormhole to see if it will reappear or we can artificially recreate it," Archer ordered.

Doctor Phlox finally spoke. "I would recommend a medical and psychological check-up on the crew, to make sure that everyone's in their game, as you humans call it. I hear that Doctor Summers has a degree in psychology, which may be helpful for the crews, once they hear the news."

"On our end," Trip said, glancing across at Lieutenant Reed who was nodding confirmation. "The engines and weapons have been checked and doubled checked."

"Same with the _Columbia_," Lieutenant Folie put in.

"Tactical has determined the two structures which are ten light minutes apart, do not contain any weapons." Reed started.

"There are several dormant fusion power plants on each of the pylons of the structures. I recommend a view of them," T'Pol added.

"We can put this on our agenda," Hernandez suggested. "Why don't we leave probes to monitor the area while the _Columbia_ and the _Enterprise_ separate to investigate the two structures separately. Any objections?"

"No sir, I'd love to see what they are and what makes them tick." Lieutenant Commander McCoy said as T'Pol nodded her affirmation.

"Then it is settled," Hernandez nodded. "We meet in twelve hours to give updates, barring any surprises."

"Agreed," Archer said getting ready to rise from the table. "Dismissed."

"Commander T'Pol, can we have a little chat?" Tru asked. "In private?"

"As you wish," T'Pol nodded. _What does this__ V'tosh ka'tur want?_ T'Pol thought to herself.

"Don't let her intimidate you," George whispered in her ear. "She seems very nervous."

"I won't Old Woman." The deceitfully young Lieutenant's death stare was very apparent.

"Kids, today." Lass could just be heard muttering under her breath.

Tru approached T'Pol, starting in Vulcan, "I wanted to show you this." Tru handed her a photo.

T'Pol stopped short. "T'Mir," she paused, "how did you get this?"

"My grandfather," Tru said.

"You're the descendent of Mestral?"

"Yes."

"You are part human," T'Pol stated more then asked.

"I am mostly human, only a quarter Vulcan." Tru sounded a little defensive.

"Do you have siblings?"

"An older brother, he looks human. Though he has a copper-based haemocyanin, unlike me."

"You have an iron-based haemoglobin?"

"Yes," Tru confirmed.

**O-O-O**

"I don't fucking believe it," Lieutenant Lass exploded as she stared at the display mounted atop the situation table in the _Enterprise_'s small situation room behind the bridge. She paused, glancing at Ensign Sato who was staring bug eyed at her. "Did I just... Did I just say that aloud?"

Sato just nodded. "Think half the bridge crew heard that. Be thankful Captain Archer and Commander T'Pol are having breakfast right now at the captain's table."

"O really?" The two communications officers glanced up to see Lieutenant Reed leaning over the railing that separated the bridge from the slightly lower situation room. "I'd try to keep from using such language in front of Captain Archer, if I were you."

Lass just nodded meekly.

"Now," Reed stepped down to the lower level joining them, "what got you so excited?"

"I was right," Lass said working to keep her tone normal. "They are using tachyons for television and communications broadcasts."

"Here," Sato touched a series of controls on the edge of the table, transferring the information to the large display on the situation rooms back wall. "Here take a look."

The display, he observed was split up into six sections, showing a series of what appeared to be videos. One was showing a black and white movie. _Is that King Kong?_ Reed thought. Another was a soccer match. Two of them appeared to be showing some sort of children's video. The fifth was just static, and he passed it right by as he glanced at the sixth. "Is that a news broadcast?" Reed asked, pointing to the last image.

"Let's find out," Lass said casually, entering a few commands causing all but the last image to disappear. The sixth image expanded, filling most of the display except for a small section at the bottom which showed the actual data stream.

The woman, Lass thought it was a woman anyway, was dark skinned with black shoulder length hair and reminded her of some of the old 20th Century newscasters she'd once seen a long time ago. She was well dressed, and wore a badge with the English characters _ISN _on her left breast._ "_There," Lass entered a final command. "We should have audio now." Stepping back, she let Ensign Sato and Lieutenant Reed watch the broadcast with her.

"...with the stunning revelation today," the anchor woman began, "of evidence purporting to show that the death of President Santiago was not an accident, but an assassination planned from within. Furthermore, then-Vice President Clark was involved with this alleged conspiracy. The evidence is currently undergoing tests designed to determine its authenticity. Meanwhile, several senate committees in Earth Dome will hold closed sessions to discuss the issue and are strongly urging the appointment of a special prosecutor to evaluate the evidence. In other news..."

Lass cut the channel. All three of them wore an expression of confusion on their faces.

"Rough translation I take it," Reed commented, frowning.

"That was untranslated," Sato said. "She was talking in an Earth language... English to be precise. That should not be possible."

"Duh," Lass said. "Did you notice she looked human too?" Lass though, was obviously just as confused. _What are humans doing way out here?_

"Lieutenant," Sato said, ignoring the Lass's jibe, and pointing at the data stream. "This has a time-stamp. It's February 15th, 2260."

"I think," Reed said thoughtfully and still frowning. "Captain Archer should be informed; Captain Hernandez, also. They're going to want to see this."

**O-O-O**

"This structure is amazing," McCoy said glancing up from her viewer at the science station on _Columbia_'s bridge. "It has a reaction control system which allows it to expand or shrink; much like our dry docks at home."

"Is it a dry dock?" Hernandez asked.

"It looks like one, but I doubt it." McCoy explained further. "Deep scans show a transphasic form of the rare isotope of potassium, K 40 embedded in each pylon."

"In English please, Lieutenant Commander McCoy."

"Part of the atoms are shifted to another layer of reality," McCoy said smiling inwardly. "I would say something similar to subspace but not subspace..." McCoy broke off as an alarm went off. "Sensors just detected a pair of spacial anomalies forming near the _Enterprise_."

"On screen," Hernandez said. She glanced up at the main screen on time to see two bluish looking vortexes form, and a what appeared to be two very large bulky looking ships emerge. Both ships, she noted seemed a have a central rotating section. A moment later, the vortexes collapsed in on themselves , disappearing in brief flashes of light. "What was that?"

"Unknown," McCoy stated. "I'm now picking up the ships on sensors. Each appears to be over seventeen hundred metres long."

"Have they detected them?" Commander Ramius asked from just behind Hernandez; in her usual spot.

"Yes, ma'am." McCoy confirmed.

"Captain," the relief communications officer said, turning in his chair. "They're hailing _Enterprise_."

"Can we listen in?" Hernandez asked. "I'd like to know what they're saying."

"No, our transceiver array needs to be recalibrated to be able to get the tachyon signals," the relief officer said. "Only the _Enterprise_'s has been."

"They're firing some kind of particle beam," Lieutenant Folie said from her tactical stations. "Looks like a warning shot."

"Polarise hull plating," Hernandez looked around everyone for a moment. "Tactical alert, all hands to battle stations."

"_Enterprise _is hailing, ma'am," the communications relief officer said. "It's Captain Archer."

"Archer to Hernandez," Archer's filtered through the communications system. "Go to warp. We're transmitting rendezvous coordinates to your helm officer. _Enterprise_ out."

"You get those coordinates, Ensign Paris?" Hernandez asked.

She nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"Then engage, warp two." Hernandez ordered, settling into her command chair.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Is this some kind of joke?" Archer said to no one in particular, rising from his command chair. "Hoshi, open a tachyon signal to the lead ship."

"Open, sir." Ensign Sato replied.

"This is Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starship Enterprise. We are peaceful explorers in this part of space."

"If you're peaceful then you won't mind undergoing an inspection," a male voice arrogantly replied.

On the main viewscreen, Archer watched the large starship that had identified itself as the EAS Invincible slowly close with Enterprise. Turning to face the communications station, he made a slashing gesture, indicating Ensign Sato to cut the signal.

"Captain," T'Pol looked up from her station. "I would not advise an inspection. They seem hostile." As if to emphasise her words, the ship shook as the blast from a some sort of particle beam went past their bow.

"Polarise hull plating," Archer said glancing at Lieutenant Reed; Reed was sitting at his tactical station. "Hoshi, hail the Columbia." He paused for beat, waiting to for the channel to be opened. "Archer to Hernandez," Archer's frustration was getting the best of him. "Go to warp. We're transmitting rendezvous coordinates to your helm officer. Enterprise out."

"Open a channel to the Invincible." he methodically said, showing deep restrain of his emotions something T'Pol was happy to see. He was developing control over his emotions, "Perhaps it was the contact with Surak's Katra on Vuclan" she guessed.

"So you are going to listen to reason?" The Earth Alliance captain asked, seeming a bit tense.

"I do not appreciate being shot at and I will not submit to this," Archer's demeanour was cold, mimicking a vulcan's stare. "Neither will my crew. Goodbye, Captain." Archer indicated the signal be cut. "Travis, rendezvous coordinates, warp two."

A moment later, the ship seemed to stretch as it sped up and entered warp.

**O-O-O**

On the command deck, of the EAS Invincible, the mask of worry and fear was worn by the senior officers.

"What do you mean they disappeared?" the captain asked, looking at his executive officer.

"After we fired our warning shot," the exec explained. "They vanished off the radar, we get nothing."

"They are hailing us again," the communications officer said.

Sweat came down the head of the captain. Only the Minbari had this type of stealth technology.

"So you are going to listen to reason?" The Captain made himself sound aggressive, trying to hide his fear.

"I do not appreciate being shot at and I will not submit to this. Neither will my crew. Goodbye, Captain."

The signal was cut. "Try to get a visual lock, Fire."

"They're gone."

"What?"

"Their ship, sir. It seemed to stretch then speed up to near the speed of light and vanished."

"FUCK ME!"

"Captain?" the exec asked.

"I can't believe I might have pulled a Jankowsky." He wiped his forehead. "Oh God."

"They looked human and the text on their ships was English."

"So did the Centauri. We can't take anything to chance; we need to contact Earth Central."

"Yes, sir."

**O-O-O**

Captain's Starlog, February 21st, 2260. It was a long week of revelations for us today which ended with a bit of excitement with the arrival of the giant starships through the anomalies and they're overly aggressive nature. We were fortunate to avoid open conflict with the locals, who appear to be human. Initial scans showed no sign of subspace technology or a warp drive, which means we are safe, for now. We hope to find a more peaceful race in order to obtain information and hopefully help. In the meanwhile we will plant subspace relays in deep space to send us the tachyon signals while we are at warp. This way we can monitor the situation with the Earth Alliance, the people who attempted to attack us. We know their name, we know they are not a people we want anything to do with. It is ironic that we find humans so far away from home yet we cannot trust them. History is notorious for being circular. We see them repeating the same mistakes of the 20th century, mistakes we outgrew. We're now on course for our rendezvous with Enterprise as planned. travelling at warp to hopefully avoid being detected and gather more intelligence. Signed: Captain Erika Hernandez.

**O-O-O**

"What a bunch of fucking morons," Lieutenant Lass slouched behind Ensign Sato who was at her communications station. "Who fires on an unknown ship and threatens them. They sound like Klingons."

Sato shook her head, turning to the Columbia communications officer. "Umm, while I agree. I don't think the captain would appreciate profanities on board."

"Yeah, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him." Lass smiled.

"Hello love," a British accented voice came from behind them, grabbing their attention.

"Crewman Mason," Hoshi looked back.

"So, are we on." Hoshi quickly slapped him, turning back to work on her station again.

"Bloody hell! What did I say?" Mason was trying to sound hurt.

"Still got the same old Mason charm," Lass said sounding sarcastic. "Eh, Jayne."

"George?" Mason exclaimed. "What are you doing here? And you know I hate that name."

"That's why I used it, Jayne," Lass rolled her eyes, and paused a moment. "Oh, I'm the communications officer on the Columbia. You? Besides getting slapped, as usual."

"Assistant engineer," he looked proudly at George.

"Good for you," Lass told him. "Now go away, before i partake in the fun and slap you myself"

"You know him?" Sato whispered as Mason walked to the captain to give a report.

"Yeah," Lass said "Known him since we were kids. Good slap by the way; way to go girl!"

"Well," Sato said thoughtfully. "He's a bit over aggressive in his approach. He is cute, if he had more..."

"Tact?" Lass suggested, smirking.

"Yeah, tact."

"Captain," they heard Mayweather say. "We're coming up on the rendezvous coordinates. Picking up Columbia on sensors."

Sitting in his command chair, Archer nodded. "Slow to impulse."

"Aye, Captain." Maywether acknowledged the order. A few moments moments later, Archer saw the lines of stars travelling at warp shorten until they were nothing more than pinpoints of light.

"Columbia?"

"Dropping out of warp," Reed said, looking up from his station at the main screen. On it, he saw a flash of light and as the decelerating Columbia came to a halt.

"Captain," Sato said. "We're being hailed by Columbia. It's Captain Hernandez."

"Put her on."

"Looks like we got a little in over our heads. Jon, what the hell happened?" Hernandez inquired.

"They appear to be human and very hostile," Archer explained looking up at the image of the Columbia's captain on the main viewscreen "They wanted us to submit to an inspection and didn't like it when I refused. I don't want to hang around this area any longer than we have to."

Hernandez nodded "I was wondering if I could get Lieutenant Lass back. I'd like her and Ensign Sato to modify our communications system so we can send can send and receive tachyon signals. We were completely in the dark during your last encounter."

"Understandable," Archer smiled. "Lieutenant Lass and Lieutenant Sato will transfer over once we dock."

Sato, who was listening to the conversation like the others on the bridge, turned to look at Archer; she'd been caught completely flat footed. The last thing she'd been expecting, was a promotion. All she could do was open and close her mouth; unable to think of what to say.

"Send my congratulations to the new Lieutenant," Hernandez said smiling. "And, tell them I'd like them over here as soon as possible."

Archer nodded. "I'd like another staff meeting while your systems are being modified. "Just yourself and your exec."

"Agreed." On the viewscreen, the image of Hernandez winked off, reverting back to the view of Columbia; now moving alongside to dock with the ships starboard docking port.

Seeing Sato's still shocked face Archer smiled, letting his second in command, Commander T'Pol explain.

"During our meeting at breakfast, the captain and I felt that you had performed well beyond what was expected of you for the past three years on Enterprise. You're promotion, has been long overdue."

"Plus," Archer smirked; turning has gaze on Lieutenant Lass who was working next to the new lieutenant. "We couldn't have our chief communications officer be of a lower rank than the Columbia's." Archer chuckled, walking over to her station. "Just joking, Georgia. Hoshi, you deserved it." Handing the rank pip to the Columbia communications officer, he said. "Lieutenant Lass, would you do the honours please?"

"Thank you, Captain," Lieutenant Sato said as Lass affixed the new rank pip to Sato's uniform.

As Archer headed back to his command chair, Lass leaned in close. "I think congratulations are in order. And, we need to hold a party on your promotion!" George whispered to her, "Do you like old music?"

"You mean like jazz?" Sato asked quizzically.

"Hell no!" Lass looked shocked. "I mean classics."

"You mean older?"

Laughing: "I mean Queen, U2, Sting, REM."

"You have recordings from that era?" Sato's eyebrows raised. "Very hard to come by."

"Yes, I have the CDs," Lass explained. "Mason has a big LP collection."

"You mean he was not just saying that to get into my pants?" Hoshi asked, checking a readout..

"Lying, no. Using it to get into your pants? Definitely" she laughed.

"So have you and Mason ever? And, why did you call him Jayne?"

"He wishes. That is his first name, a secret he kept from people till I found out. I call him Mason unless I feel like messing with him."

"Ah..."

**O-O-O**

In the small ready room just off the bridge, Captain Archer sat in his chair trying to ignore the headache he felt coming on. Captain Hernandez, Commander T'Pol, Commander Ramius and himself had been going over, and trying to decide what course of action to take; they'd been arguing for past half hour...

"I think..." T'Pol was saying neutrally. "...we should head towards the general location of the system that would be vulcan in this Galaxy."

"You believe that Vulcan exists in this galaxy as well?" Archer asked.

"Earth does. So it is a logical possibility," T'Pol added.

"That system is over two days away at warp five," Ramius flatly stated, upsetting T'Pol. "We could be wasting our time over a planet and race that may not exist here. And, there is the chance the wormhole can open up again."

"Commander Ramius is correct," Hernandez said agreeing. "It would be unwise to leave the local area for now; unless we find evidence of a race that can help us."

The intercom beeped. "Sirs, sorry to interrupt," Sato's filtered voice interrupted; breaking the tension.

"Go ahead, Lieutenant," Archer ordered as he reached over to the intercom; answering the call.

"We calibrated the systems on Columbia,"

"And?" hernandez asked.

"The Columbia's transceiver is newer then our own." Sato explained "While we were modifying it, we received a weak signal, that sounded like a distress call."

"What is their situation?"

"They say they're under attack by raiders. They appear to be a civilian trade caravan headed to some place called Babylon 5."

"It could be a trap," Ramius and T'Pol said echoing each other.

"Yes," Hernandez agreed. "But, we can outrun them if it is. Captain, I suggest we go help. We me be able to make some friends and get some more information on this Earth Alliance."

"Agreed." Archer said. "Lieutenant Sato, report back to Enterprise, We're about to undock and get under way..."

Captain's Starlog, supplemental. A short while ago the Columbia, with her more advanced transceiver picked up what appeared to be distress signal from a trade caravan. Enterprise and Columbia are on route at maximum warp to see if we can provide assistance.

**O-O-O**

"This is Spike Rubble of the Wreckers to any ship within range," Spike paused, catching his breath. "We need help! we're under attack from raiders. We are part of a trade caravan headed for Babylon 5. I say again..."

"Hell," Kat Polinger, the skipper of the cargo ship put her head down in frustration. "We are so screwed."

"Kat," Rubble announced. "We're are receiving a signal."

"Put it through," Kat said, looking up at a monitor. On it, she saw a strange bridge with an apparently human woman sitting in the central command chair.

"This is Captain hernandez of the Columbia, we are here to help..."

"Thank you" Kat said. "We're out gunned." AS if to emphasise her words, she felt the rumble of an explosion through her feet.

"I don't see them on scopes," the Narn Radar operator G'Quinn worried voice carried over to her. "They must have some kind of stealth system."

"Don't worry, Mal," Kat assured the Narn "You're our lucky charm, remember?"

"Ya, ya," G'quinn answered to the Human name his adopted family had given him.

"Kat, this is Tom in the port turret. I can see the ships; they're definitely not EarthForce. Fast as hell though."

"Yeee haaa!" Chuck's voice could be hear from the aft gunnery position. "They just blew that raider out of the sky."

"Well," G'Quinn's voice was unusually optimistic. "Looks like we will live to see another day."

**O-O-O**

At the Enterprise's communications station, Lieutenant Sato turned in her seat. "We're within range of the distress signal."

"Ensign, slow to impulse." Archer commanded simply as he looked at the helm.

"I'm picking up the trade caravan on sensors," T'Pol announced. "Looks like three mid-sized cargo ships on bearing three-three-one mark seven-two. They appear to be under attack by at least twelve small vessels." Without being asked, she put the view caravan on the viewscreen.

"All decks acknowledge tactical alert," Reed's voice echoed across the bridge. "Hull plating has been polarised and weapons are standing by."

Leaning forward in his chair, Archer glanced over to the communications station. "Lieutenant Sato, hail Columbia."

"Channel open, sir."

"Erika," Archer said "Contact the lead ship of the caravan, we'll deal with the raiders."

"Will do," Hernandez's voice filtered through the speakers hidden in the ceiling. "We'll cover your rear. Good luck, Jon."

"Thanks."

"Fighters," Reed observed glancing up at the viewscreen. He could quite clearly see the small triangular ships buzzing around the trade caravan. "They each appear to be armed with a pair of low yield plasma cannons."

Archer nodded; his gaze was locked on the viewscreen as he considered his options. "Deploy phase cannons."

"Deploying phase cannons," Reed pressed a few controls. "Acquiring targets."

"Hoshi," Archer said. "Hail the raiders."

After pressing a few controls on her own station, she glanced back. "You're on, Captain."

"This is Captain Archer of the starship Enterprise. Cease your attack, or we'll open fire!"

"Don't see no EarthForce insignia," a gruff but amused sounding voice said. "So lets say you don't interfere and I wont damage that pretty ship of yours."

"They closed the channel," Sato informed him.

Archer nodded, resigned to the action he was about to order his armoury officer do. "Fire," he commanded; his voice barely louder than a whisper.

An instant later, Archer saw several crimson beams of phased energy lance out from the Enterprise's phase cannons; vaporising several of the raiders in small momentary explosions.

"What the hell," the lead pilot muttered as he caught sight of one of his wingmen exploding. We're out gunned, he thought as he tried to weave his way to the new vessel. We need support. Reaching for a control, he hit his emergency signal. "We need backup..."

"Captain," Sato announced. "He's transmitting a tachyon signal. I think it's a call for backup."

"Block it," Archer commanded.

Archer's head snapped to Commander T'Pol at the science station; an alarm he'd become all to familiar with over the past few years had began sounding.

"Captain," she said clearly. "We're picking up another anomaly..."

"On screen," Archer said looking up at the viewscreen. On it, he saw blue vortex that matched the pair the Earth Alliance ships had emerged out of back at the Wolf 359 system. However, no Earth Alliance ship emerged from this one. The ship that emerged from this vortex, was only slightly longer than Columbia and Enterprise. It was, however as tall as it was long and just as bulky looking as the two Earth Alliance ships had been.

At the fore of this ship, surrounding what she thought might have been some kind of docking bay, he saw a set of three rotating wheels. Each wheel was subsequently larger and set further back than the previous. The wheels were clearly designed to allow for rapid deployment of the fighters they'd already encountered.

"Columbia is hailing us." Sato said. "Captain Hernandez is saying she'll deal with the new arrival."

"Understood," Archer nodded. "Tell her to disable them only. We don't want to be seen as merciless as these raiders."

"Captain," Lieutenant Lass said glancing back from her communications station on Columbia's bridge. "Enterprise acknowledges. Captain Archer is instructing us to attempt to disable the raider ship."

Hernandez nodded. "George, hail the raider ship."

"Channel open," Lass said.

"This is Captain Hernandez of the Columbia. Surrender, or we'll open fire!"

"They're launching more fighters," McCoy said glancing up from her station.

"Helm," Hernandez instructed. "Evasive manoeuvres. Keep our course erratic so they can't get a good firing solution; tactical, target their generators, Lieutenant Folie. As Captain Archer said, we want them disabled; not destroyed."

"Aye, sir," Lieutenant Folie nodded, as she touched the controls on her station. "Firing phase cannons..."

On the viewscreen, Hernandez saw their phase cannons rip through the hull of the raider ship expelling atmosphere and undoubtedly killing some of its crew. Damn, she thought. "Report!"

"They've been disabled," Folie said checking her displays. "But, we caused a major hull breach in the process. They're venting atmosphere.

"Beam any survivors on board," Hernandez said turning to the commander of the ships MACO detachment. "Major Conner, please meet our guests at the transporter."

**O-O-O**

Standing adjacent to the controls of the transporter, Major Conner watched as the form of what appeared to be three humans take shape and solidify within the sparkling haze of the transporter beam. A moment later, when they had completely formed, the three very quickly patted themselves down, trying to make sure they were 'all there.' The three were all men and very casually dressed, albeit with what looked like very expensive looking clothes. Conner smiled, remembering his first trip through the device. He hated the damn thing. But, it was also extremely useful for situations like just now when he needed them to be cooperative.

Glancing to the pair of MACOs he'd brought with them, he instructed. "Disarm them. Then escort them to the brig."

"Yes, sir," the o corporal and private said in unison as they moved up towards the pad; their sleek black pulse rifles held at the ready just in case.

"Stay where you are," the corporal commanded the shocked looking trio. "Hands behind your head!"

As they complied, the private pulled out a hand scanner and began running it over them pausing only when the scanner detected a weapon. When the young private had finished, he'd pulled a small pistol like hand gun from a pocket and what appeared to be a flick knife from each of them.

**O-O-O**

"Lieutenant Sato," Captain Archer said glancing over at the new lieutenant. "Hail the lead ship."

"Channel open." Sato nodded, glancing back at him. He noted, she was wearing her small earpiece.

"I'm Captain Archer of the Starship Enterprise. Are you okay? Do you need any medical assistance?"

"We are fine," Archer heard a female voice filter its way through the communications system. "Thank you. If you don't mind it rude, just who the hell are you people?"

"We are new to the area." Archer said tactfully. "If you wish, we can shuttle you and anyone you want to our ship. We can then explain and discuss things."

"You're human?"

"Yes, very much so. The majority of our crew is human with a couple exceptions." As he said that, he glanced at Commander T'Pol at the science station, now clad in the standard royal blue Starfleet uniform she'd begun wearing recently. While he had liked her form fitting suits, he knew that she'd eventually start wearing the proper uniform. He was glad she'd made the change just after the Terra Prime incident; it would help provided a unified front.

"The other ship?"

"The same," Archer nodded instictively, even though he knew the other captain couldn't see him. "I'll send a shuttlepod over to pick you up; if that is what you wish."

"You did save our asses. We will be ready in ten minutes." the unknown female captain said.

"I'm looking forward to meeting you." Archer nodded to Sato, instructing her to close the channel.

"Columbia is hailing..." Sato said touching some of her controls.

"Hernandez here, we are towing the hostile. I want to inspect her and see if there are any remaining people. Also get information from the ships computers. Maybe find out who they work for."

"We are expecting guests from the caravan, I'd appreciate it if you'd come over?"

"No," Hernandez sounded determined. "I need to see this myself. I'll send Commander Summers and Lieutenant Lass over. Summers can help size up the people."

"Why Lieutenant Lass?" Archer asked curious. "I'd hardly call her very diplomatic." During the time she'd been aboard Enterprise, he'd heard more expletives from her than he'd heard his entire life.

"She may not be very diplomatic," Harmandez said "But, she's a damn good haggler. If they're as consumer oriented as their broadcasts seem to imply, you need someone who can negotiate a good deal." She paused. "And, she might just learn a few things about diplomacy in the progress."

"Our Ensign Mayweather grew up on a cargo ship," Archer said, understanding Hernandez's argument. "He'll definitely help us in that area as well." Archer glanced at the helm. "Travis, do you mind piloting the shuttlepod to bring our guests here?"

"It would be a pleasure, sir." Mayweather said grinning at the thought of meeting fellow cargo haulers.

"Then it is settled," Hernandez said. "I'll have Lieutenant Lass and Commander Summers shuttle over."

Archer nodded. "Good luck, Captain. Archer out."

**O-O-O**

The airlock on the transport was crowded as a few people wanted to see the 'shuttlepod' which was currently docking with their transport.

"We got a positive lock," Kat said over the intercom. "Pressurizing airlock. Air pressure nominal."

"Hello there," a voice came over the intercom "This is Ensign Travis Mayweather, of Enterprise. I am opening the docking port on my end."

The humans and the Narn floated towards the other side.

"Brace yourselves," Travis warned the newcomers as they pushed themselves into the shuttlepod.

"You have gravity?" Kat said amazed as she climbed down the ladder into the shuttlepod proper.

"I don't believe even the Minbari have gravity on anything this small," G'Quinn's comment had not gone unnoticed.

"Yes we do. I'm Travis," Mayweather said extending his hand in greeting.

"Sorry for my rudeness, I'm Kat, this is Spike." They shook hands. "And, this is my adopted brother, Mal. Well we call him that. His real name is G'Quinn"

"Pleasure to meet you folks," Mayweather said securing the airlock. "Please have a seat; I'm about to get under way. What's in the package?"

"Ah, a gift for the captains. You will see." Kat smiled.

After the shuttlepod had undocked, and was returning to Enterprise, the traders began talking amongs themselves. As Maywether piloted the small craft, he began to realise that they didn't have some of the technology that he and nearly everyone he knew took for granted. "You have Inertial dampers?" G'quinn noticed the lack of any g forces on their bodies as the ship accelerated.

"Yes we do," Travis changed the subject. "How do you like the shipping business,"

"My father started this business as a salvage operation..." Kat said, recognising what the young officer had just done. She realised, it probably wasn't his place to talk about the technologies involved. "...until they got themselves enough ships to do the trade convoy. You could say I have been at it all my life."

"Sounds like me," Maywether said as he began his final approach to the launch bay doors on the underside of Enterprise. Glancing forward out of the small canopy, he spotted one of Columbia's two shuttlepods being retracted into launch bay two. "I was born on a cargo ship called the Horizon. I stayed with them until I joined Starfleet"

"Starfleet?"

"Our exploration and defence branch." Maywether explained. "I wanted to see what was out there. See the universe."

"Good answer," Kat said. Sounds like the EarthForce recruitment advert. "The universe is a wonderful and scary place."

"We're almost there," Maywether said. "Shuttlepod One to Enterprise. Initiating docking procedure..." Touching the various controls, he held the shuttlepod in place as the docking arm lowered its self out of the doors of launch bay one and attached itself to the shuttlepod. A moment later, Shuttlepod One was raised into launch bay one.

The top side exit opened after a moment. Turning from his piloting controls, stood up and motioning to the the guests. "Please..."

Kat smiled as the crew entered the starship. "Amazing," G'Quinn said again. "Artificial gravity."

"Greetings," T'Pol was waiting for the group. "I am Commander T'Pol, the executive officer of Enterprise."

"Are you an elf fan?" Kat asked, noticing the lack of emotion in the voice of the strange human female as well as the pointed ears and slanted eyebrows.

"No. Elves are fictitious. I am a Vulcan." T'Pol said noticing the blank stares. "Yes we do resemble the Elves of the human mythos. We are not elves, however." Kat could sense a bit of irritation yet the face gave no indication of any emotion still.

"Ahh" Kat nodded.

"If you will follow me, Captain Archer is waiting in the captain's mess."

"The ship is roomy for such a small size," G'Quinn commented as he followed Commander T'Pol out of the launch bay. "When did the Earth Alliance get such technologies?"

"This is not an Earth Alliance vessel, it is a United Earth vessel." T'Pol corrected.

"United Earth?" Kat asked, walking beside T'Pol along one of Enterprise's corridors.

"Yes," T'Pol said. "We will explain at the meeting."

**O-O-O**

Kat entered a relatively medium sized comfortable room. The one thing which stood out to her were the uniforms. They didn't look very military, more like what the old Nasa astronauts wore, pre Earth Alliance. On a monitor on the right hand wall, she could see what she thought was the ships pennant patch. This was going to be an interesting conversation.

A tall man, with light brown hair, just starting to go grey, stood before the table. The table she observed was covered in a white tablecloth. "Hi, I am," he began. From the sound of his voice she recognised him as the one who had hailed her after the attack.

"Captain Jonathan Archer," Kat finished his sentence and shook his hand "I recognised your voice. A pleasure to meet you in person."

"Good memory, this is Lieutenant jg Georgia Lass, Commander Tru Summers," he paused as his helmsman entered the room. "You have already met Commander T'Pol and Ensign Travis Mayweather.

Kat blushed a little. "You seem to be the same species as the commander, I seemed to have upset her. I mistook her for an elf fan. I am sorry, you just look very human. No offence meant."

"None taken," Summers smiled knowing that it probably upset T'Pol a bit more then her. She, in fact was a huge fan of the books by J.R.R. Tolkien and had on occasion gone to conventions as an elven warrior. She had usually gotten a lot of fun teasing the geeky fan boys who would drool and buy her things to try and impress her. "Vulcans look a lot like humans, though they have various internal anatomical differences, they also have a copper based blood."

"They?" Kat noted the show of emotions. "So you don't consider yourself Vulcan?"

"I am only a quarter Vulcan, from my grandfather. The rest is human." Summers explained for the umpteenth time.

"Captain, If i may," Kat motioned to Mal who brought a small case which he placed on the table. "I have a few cases of this in my father's old collection. I thought it would be a nice way to thank you." She opened the case revealing four bottles of a very old dark rum.

"You didn't have to," Archer took a bottle to take a look, while the Columbia's communications officer inspected another.

"Nice vintage," Lieutenant Lass murmured.

"Could you please explain why you call yourself United Earth?" Kat asked "As far as I know we only have the Earth Alliance."

"Please sit," everyone took their seats "Would you like something to drink?"

"What do you have?" Kat enquired of her hosts.

"We have basics," Archer told her. "Tea, coffee, lemonade, or hot chocolate. Ask, if we have it we will bring it."

"Hot chocolate please, lots of whipping cream," Kat said without hesitation; trying to remember that last time she'd been this well catered for as the rest ordered their drinks from the stewards.

"Well, you heard correctly." Archer nodded "We are from an organisation known as United Earth. It is one which was formed shortly after Earth's first contact with the Vulcans."

"Huh?" Spike commented, sounding confused.

"Well you see," Archer explained. "This is where things get complicated. Commander T'Pol, is also our science officer; she will explain. If you will please?"

"Yes, sir, " T'Pol walked over to the display on the wall behind the captain Pressing a couple of controls, she brought up an image of the local group of galaxies. "We are currently here," she began. "The designation of the galaxy is the Triangulum Galaxy. United Earth, is located here..." She pressed a few control as the map zoomed into the Milky May; showing the the local stars of the United Earth systems.

"Wait a minute, you're saying there is another Earth?" Kat burst out incredulously.

"I know it sounds strange, but yes." Archer confirmed as he nodded assurance that they were telling the truth. "We where transported over three million light years via an unstable wormhole in our wolf 359 system."

"You named your local stars systems with the same names?"

"Ironically yes," T'Pol pressed a few more controls; displaying the colony names.

"We call Proxima Centauri, Proxima." Kat explained. "There's an alien race who call themselves the Centauri. So they dropped the Centauri part. I see you have colonies in the Alpha and Beta systems? We can't go there due to hyperspace storms. Do you have pictures of Earth?"

T'Pol looked at Archer, getting his approval. She then had it display some pictures "These are pictures of Earth; aslo included are a few of the colonies: Alpha Centauri, and Vega."

"The Earth Alliance has a colony on Vega as well," Kat observed. She paused as she read some of the information about the colonies. "Your colonies seem very well off." Kat's envy was apparent.

"Thanks to the Vulcans; Earth was able to gain technologies that helped us greatly." Archer said "We eliminated poverty, hunger and most diseases in less then a century."

"Wow, I wish we had your people in our region." Spike thought aloud.

"It must have cost you a pretty penny," G'Quinn observed.

"The Vulcan people don't charge for certain technologies," T'Pol explained "We believe it is a certain right to all people. I believe the human term is 'humanitarian aid'."

The newcomers looked approvingly at T'Pol. The drinks had arrived and Kat had taken a sip. She'd been expecting what she called 'vending machine hot chocolate,' "Good hot chocolate," Kat paused, considering how to put what she was about to ask. With these people, Kat thought. Straight up. "I admit, I also have a request."

"What do you need?" Archer asked.

"I would like to hire your ships..." Kat explained. "...to escort us to Babylon 5. We will of course pay your jump gate fees and compensate you for your services in rescuing us and the protection to Babylon 5"

"Jump gate?" Lieutenant Lass asked. "Do you mean the strange vortex that opened up and deposited that Raider ship?"

"No," Kat said "That, Lieutenant, is a jump point into hyperspace."

"I believe she is referring to the massive gates we discovered in the Wolf 359 system." T'Pol observed.

"How do you travel anywhere if you don't have jump technology?"

"We have something called a warp drive," Archer said. "it allows us to bypass Einstein's Laws of Relativity and go faster than light. My father happened to design the warp five engine in this ship and Columbia."

"You have a real space faster then light drive?" G'Quinn couldn't help himself. He had to ask. "How much do you want for that and your gravity technology?"

"I am sorry," Archer said smiling. "At this time, it is not for sale."

"I apologise," Kat looked at G'Quinn and got him to back down."It is my father's influence."

"Not to worry," Archer said reassuring the Narn. "Kat," Archer asked. "If I may ask. Where is this Babylon 5? And, what is it?"

"It's an Earth Alliance station in the Epsilon Eridani system," Kat explained to them. Noticing their hesitation, she wondered if they'd had a run in with an Earth Alliance destroyer. Most of them these days, now that President Clark was in power, tended to be overly hostile. " It's in neutral space and almost all of the local races have a representative there. It's commanding officer is pretty decent guy." Kat reassured her.

"That is roughly twenty two hours away at warp five," T'pol said automatically.

"wow, It's roughly two days travel in hyperspace at our speeds," Kat said "Our top speed is only seventy-five klicks per sec, and it takes over two hours to reach that. Your ships seem faster... way faster."

Archer smiled, confirming what she'd thought" Full impulse on the NX-class starship is rated for ten percent speed of light. Though we can get up to twenty-five, if we red-line them."

The look on G'Quinn's wide red eyed and spotted hairless face was very funny. He really really wanted to buy the technology. But, he knew his sister would beat the crap out of him as she put it for not listening. That is over twenty times the speed of Minbari Sharlins, he thought. Why do they have such advanced technology? G'Quinn sipped his carrot juice smoothie, thinking that the universe had a strange way of rewarding people.

"Well, the offer still stands," Kat said "We need an escort to Babylon 5. And, we will pay you. Besides, if you're going to be in this region for the foreseeable future, you'll need the credits."

"Could we also buy some of your hot chocolate mix, chocolate, whipping cream and carrot juice? Maybe other food stuff?" Mal's mention of the chocolate was not lost on Tru, she could tell that there is a lot of love between the two. Sibling love truly is universal.

"I am sure we can provide you with that," he nodded to Lieutenant Lass as he rose from his seat. "I'll leave it to Lieutenant Lass and Ensign Mayweather to negotiate the fine details. In the meantime, I'm needed on the bridge." Pausing at the exit into the crews mess hall, he glanced back indicating for T'Pol to join him. "Georgia, Travis," he said addressing the two junior officers. "The mess is yours..."

**O-O-O**

Kat decided that she liked these people. They seemed to be open minded, friendly and courteous and very reasonable. They were in one of the ships guest quarters Captain Archer had provided for them.

"That woman, Lieutenant Lass, George, she is a very very good haggler." G'Quinn stood amazed.

"I am surprised you didn't' give her the kitchen sink," Kat smirked. "You seem to like her, you softy."

"She is pretty, for a human." Q'Quinn was thoughtful. "Besides, I got permission for our crew members to visit the two ships and enjoy some time off and a good meal."

"The crew will love you for that," Kat smirked again "You know that?"

"Well, I only need the love of my lovely sister."

"These quarters are huge," Kat murmured. "At least for our standards."

"I called the crew," G'Quinn reported. "The ships are getting into formation, with the Enterprise in the lead and the Columbia in the rearguard position."

"They took down the Battlewagon," Kat said. "With a single shot. That is impressive fire power for a ship this size."

"Be careful though,"G'Quinn cautioned. "They seem to be great, but nothing is always as it seems. Especially right now with what President Clark is doing back on Earth." He paused a moment. "Our Earth."

"I can feel that their honest," Kat insisted.

"Time will tell," G'Quinn rested his head on the head rest of the chair. "Let's enjoy it this for as long as we are able..."

**O-O-O**

As the caravan, which now included Enterprise and Columbia, approached the monstrous hyperspace jump gate, it could be seen on the main screen of Enterprise. Kat, and her brother Mal(G'quinn) were on the bridge.

"Miss Polinger, if you will?" Archer asked.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant Sato?" the Wrecker's captain asked "If I may use your console?"

"Please," Sato said.

Kat took out a data key. "Could you open a signal to the jump gate transponder on this frequency?"

"Sure," Sato indicated a small numerical keypad on her console. "You can enter your data using this keyboard."

"Thanks," Kat entered her identification code as the gate acknowledged it's authenticity.

"Captain," T'Pol looked up from her station. "The jump gate just scanned the caravan and appears to be re-aligning its position."

On the screen, Archer could see small thrusters firing; moving the four long pylons further apart to allow for the passage of the ships. A moment later, he saw the pylons light up successive order as a vortex, very much like the ones they'd witnessed previously, formed portal opened up within the structure. The only difference that Archer could detect was that this one was more orange in colour rather than blue.

"We are good to go," Kat said looking up at the viewscreen.

"Ensign," Archer said leaning forward in his chair. "Take us in, impulse power. Ahead seventy-five kliometres per sec."

Kat shook her head mirthlessly. Both this ship and Columbia had to go that much slower just so that her ships would not be run over.

"Yes, sir," Mayweather acknowledged entering the commands into his helm.

"Don't' forget that we need to keep the beacon for Babylon 5 in our sights at all times." Kat explained. "We don't want to get lost. There are no points of reference in hyperspace. Also we need to keep a lock on all ships. So none stray too far."

"Yes, we have the protocol in place," Mayweather said not taking his eyes off of the viewscreen. He could see the jump gate and the vortex within it growing larger as the ship approached. "I've got the beacon tied into our navigation system."

"I don't want to loose anyone," Kat said nodding. "Hyperspace is notorious for that."

"Don't worry, we fully intend to live up to our side of our deal." Archer smiled.

While the Enterprise and the small caravan entered the vortex, Archer felt a brief tug of acceleration as the inertial dampers lagged behind for an instant. A moment later, the vortex was gone and all they could see was a roiling and rippling sea of red light. Almost at once, Archer understood what Miss Polinger had meant when she'd told them that besides the hyperspace navigation beacon network, there were no points of reference.

Just to his left, he heard a faint moan come from Commander T'Pol. "Commander T'Pol are you all right?" Archer asked.

"No," T'Pol answered, frowning as she massaged the bridge of her nose. "I am getting flashes of thoughts and emotions. They are getting more frequent and harder to suppress."

Archer dreaded what he knew was about to happen. The last time he'd seen T'Pol become like this was during their time in the Expanse; shortly after they'd discovered half destroyed Vulcan ship Seleya. "Lieutenant," Archer said glancing at his armoury and tactical officer as he rose from his command chair. An instant later he and Reed were by T'Pol's side as she began to tense up.

As Reed tried to restrain her, she violently shoved him aside, knocking him to the deck. "No, Don't touch me," she exploded.

"Archer to sickbay," he said reaching out and activating the intercom. "Doctor Phlox, medical emergency on the bridge."

Reed didn't want to risk touching her again. But regardless, he quickly restrained her again with Archer's help.

"Captain," Sato said. "We're being hailed by Columbia. They're using a tachyon signal. It appears Commander Summers is going through something similar."

"What's wrong?" Phlox said striding onto the bridge from the turbolift.

"Don't touch me! Don't touch me! "T'pol kept repeating as Phlox attempted to scan her with his hand scanner.

"I can't help you if you won't let me examine you," Phlox tried to explain to the increasingly incoherent T'Pol.

Approaching from the turbolift, apparently unnoticed by either Archer, Reed or Doctor Phlox; Commander Charles Tucker III, Enterprise's chief engineer spoke softly. "T'Pol, I'm here," He paused as Reed tried to keep himp away from T'Pol. "Captain," Trip said "Let me talk to her."

T'Pol, it seemed, was still coherent enough to recognise Trip. "Trip," T'Pol said. "They won't leave me alone."

"They're just trying to help," Trip said reaching out, placing an arm on her shoulder. "Take you to sickbay and get you checked out."

The physical contact was like a brief electric shock to T'Pol. Memories surged through her. Memories which were not hers, but Trip's. She felt it all. The pain of loosing his younger sister, the pain of loosing their daughter and the intense love Trip felt for her. It was overwhelming. Till she focused on the one thing which gave him calm and made her relax. Ironically it was the image of herself. The memory of the night they made love. She was reliving it through his eyes, with his emotions, his love for her. Her mind lapsed into unconsciousness.

"What just happened to Commanders T'Pol and Summers?" Kat was worried that they would be blamed.

"I believe it has something to do with their Vulcan physiology," Phlox said reading the information on the small hand scanner "Vulcans are touch telepaths."

"Were they spying on us?" Kat accused. "Like Psi Corps."

"No," Phlox assured them. "I have personal experience with this. I can assure you they would not spy on you. Their telepathy is not like that. They have ability to meld thoughts and ideas with careful meditation and concentration. It is not something that can be turned off or on like in fiction."

"Do you have any other telepaths on board?" G'quinn asked worriedly. He hated the idea of others prying into his mind without his knowledge or permission.

"We don't' have any telepaths on our Earth," Archer said. "Though, I think I'd like to learn a bit more about this Psi Corp."

"We are getting hailed by the Columbia," Sato said her hand going to her small earpiece.

The signal came through, and Archer could hear Commander Summers voice over the channel. "Is T'Pol okay?"

"She's in sickbay with Commander Tucker and Doctor Phlox," Archer explained. "She lapsed into unconsciousness. Do you have any idea what happened?"

"I believe I do," Summers stated. "Somehow this hyperspace is affecting the natural telepathic abilities; increasing them, like a magnifying glass."

"How come your still awake?" Archer asked. He'd thought she'd have been out cold too.

"I believe it has to do with her emotional control," Summers said thoughtfully "She has such a tight lid on it and the onslaught of the crews thoughts and emotions broke passed her barriers. Emotion and thought overload if you will." She paused a moment "In actual fact, I don't think she's truly unconscious; merely in a Vulcan healing trance."

"A what?" Archer asked. He thought the term sounded familiar. Probably a vestigial memory from the time when he'd carried Surak's Katra, the essence of the Vulcan who had once been the father of Vulcan logic. But, those memories were fading fast these days, and were getting harder to recall.

"It's nothing you need to worry about," Summers expanded. "It's an ability Vulcan's have had since Surak's time. She's probably been studying up on it recently. She'll come round within an hour or two and be more able to deal with the onslaught. Though, I would recommend that she not be touched by too many people, or be near too many people at once. I'll shuttle over when I can. Summers out."

"Sir," Sato said. "It's Captain Hernandez."

Archer nodded, glancing up at the viewscreen as the imaged changed to a view of Columbia's bridge and Captain Hernandez sitting in her command chair. "Captain," she asked. "You heard Summer's report?"

Archer nodded. "It wasn't pretty."

Hernandez nodded in turn. "It wasn't here either," she paused. "But, that wasn't why I called. Have you checked the subspace sensors yet?"

"Not yet," Archer asked curious. "Why?"

"They're currently reading nothing," Hernandez said. "It seems, subspace is incompatible with hyperspace. At least that's what Chief Engineer Dax just told me. He also suggested, that when in hyperspace, we'll probably be limited to a top acceleration of around point two impulse."

"Understood," Archer sad thoughtfully. He'd wondered why Trip had come to the bridge earlier. He'd probably been about to tell him the same thing. Better get down to sickbay, he thought. Speak to Trip and check on T'Pol. "Archer out."


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Doctor Phlox, how is she doing?" Captain Archer asked stepping into the sickbay, located in one of the most well protected areas of the ship at the centre of E-deck.

"Resting comfortably," Phlox said turning away from a small work station. "The effects of hyperspace apparently put quite a strain on her physiology." He paused as he joined Archer, leading him to the large display above the imaging chamber. "After studying these readouts," Phlox explained. "I have to agree with Doctor Summers. She does indeed appear to have put herself in a healing trance. These are the results of the neural imaging scan I took when we first brought her in."

On the display, Archer could see a computer generated image of T'Pol's skull and brain with the neural pathways clearly visible and apparently extremely active. "Now look at this image," Phlox pulled up a second image. "This is the scan I took just a minute ago..." A second image almost identical to the first one appeared. But with very apparent differences. "You can see her neural pathways are nowhere near as active as they were. This shows that her condition is stabilizing."

"So, she's going to wake up soon?" Commander Tucker got up from T'Pol's side. "I mean she's not going to be like this forever. Is she?" The concern was quiet clear in his face.

"Oh, she'll wake up," Phlox reassured him. "When she is ready. Though, she'd come round much quicker if a Vulcan adept at this were to assist her."

Archer nodded. "Keep me updated..." As Archer spoke, he gestured for Trip to join him as he headed for the exit. "Trip," he said. "I just spoke with Captain Hernandez. She said something about subspace being incompatible with hyperspace..."

Trip nodded. "Yeah," he agreed. "That's what I was going to the bridge earlier to tell you. We can't form a subspace field nor use any of our subspace technologies while in hyperspace. That means..."

"Warp drive is useless in hyperspace," Archer and Trip echoed each other.

Archer glanced at Trip as they reached the turbolift. "You didn't get any new light shows in the engine room, did you?"

Trip smiled, knowing what the captain had meant. Back when they'd been in the Expanse, they'd discovered that the Cochrane Equation wasn't always constant; usually when they ran into one of the numerous spatial anomalies that used to frequent the former region of space. "No, thank God. We didn't have to shut the reactor down. This time."

**O-O-O**

Lying in her bed, Tru groaned as he door chimed for the third time.

"Go away," Tru finally said reaching for the bedside intercom control. "I don't feel like having visitors."

"_It's George,_" she heard a familiar voice say "_I just got off duty. Wondered if you felt like talking?_"

Tru sighed, knowing she should have expected her to show up. "Come back in five," Tru said pulling the covers over her head. "I'm not exactly decent."

"_Doesn't bother me,_" George could be heard saying. "_I am girl you know._" Even though Tru couldn't see the young looking communications officer, she could imagine her rolling her eyes as she spoke into the intercom.

"Oh, get in here before you wake up the entire deck," Tru half laughed, rising out of the bed. "Besides, I doubt you're in any better state of dress than I am."

Walking over to the door, she opened it, letting her friend enter. "You sure just got off?" Tru said as George walked into her quarters. She didn't look like she had just gotten off. She had her training pants on and her sports bra. "Judging by that sheen of sweat on your forehead, you've just ran round E-deck a couple times."

"True," George smirked. "Thought I'd ask you to join me. That way, you work out that funk..." George's voice trailed off as she saw what Tru was wearing. A decidedly non-regulation blue form fitting tank top and panties. George's smirk expanded into a grin. She'd never seen Tru wear stuff like this before. "And, you say you have trouble getting guys."

"George," Tru sniffed the air proceeding to pinch her nose to emphasise with a very Californian accent. "You like, really stink." The Bad Valley girl accent caused them both to go momentarily into a fit of giggles.

"Anyway," George said. "I brought some chocolate. I figured you might need some comfort food."

"Yes, I do!" Tru agreed. "Truth be told, I ate my supply." Tru sighed. "Thanks for coming." Given the effects hyperspace was having on her, George was the only person she could be around.

"At least I can be good for something. I stole this from the galley." George said jovially as she placed the massive slab of milk chocolate on the table. She reached out and held Tru. "Seriously, you sure you're okay?"

"Well I'm better anyway," Tru said. "I'm barely feeling the psychic onslaught now.

George nodded. "The captain asked the people in the quarters around yours to hot bunk temporarily."

"Thank her for me," Tru acknowledged. "But, I think I've got a handle on it now."

"Thank you for covering my ass back on the bridge," George said "Captain Hernandez was wondering why I didn't affect you the way the others did."

"Not a problem," Tru said. "I merely said you had strong mental blocks and probably a mutation which allowed you to avoid telepathic scans."

"I heard T'Pol is in a coma?" George enquired, remembering T'Pol's condition.

"Healing trance," Tru corrected. "I'm worried about T'Pol. She isn't disciplined enough in the mental abilities of the Vulcan race. In fact, I'm surprised she even knew about the trance. Guess she's being doing some reading."

"I suppose you will have to train her to better control her mental abilities." George said thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Tru acknowledged. "She'll need it. I'm going to go over there in a few hours; see if I can help her recover a bit quicker."

"I heard she likes _Enterprise_'s engineer," George said conversationally. "Charles Tucker?"

"You mean Trip?"

"His nick name," George told her. "That name brings back a few bad memories." The bad memory was when she lost her virginity to a guy who also called himself 'Trip'. Her Trip, had slept with her, and then left her. She still wanted to strangle the bastard.

"How long was it before you could go near a zero-g toilet?" Tru asked, changing the subject.

"A year, and it's just the toilet seat." George said, trying to forget that memory. "Besides, if you were killed by one, you would be finicky around one. Stupid Soviet-era space station."

"You're one hundred and ninety and you still have the body and looks of an eighteen year old," Tru tried not to be too loud, "You know how many people would kill for that." Tru laughed, which made George feel better. She had adopted her in a way, as her smaller sister. Tru had witnessed George as she took her grandfather's soul. One thing George had not expected, was that Tru could see the soul of her grandfather due to their closeness and their telepathic nature.

"Hey," George countered, giving Tru a jovial poke in the chest. "You're almost in your forties, and you still look like a teenager too."

"True, I guess I have to thank my genes for that." Tru said.

"Plus, you can have a life, get married have children." George trying to cheer Tru up couldn't hide her sadness when she added. "I can't."

"I guess," Tru nodded, reaching for the chocolate George had brought. "No one has it easy."

"Yeah, you're strong Tru, I know you can get through this," George paused, an idea cropping into her head. "I hear, they're showing _Back to the Future_ in the Mess in a few minutes. Make you feel more relaxed for when you go to _Enterprise_."

Tru smiled. "Well, you're certainly not going wearing that, are you?" Tru indicated George's training outfit.

"Fuck no," George said, completely shocked at the notion. "Figured I'd borrow one of your outfits."

"Not without a shower you're not!" Tru gave George a friendly shove in the direction of her wash room. "Get in there."

**O-O-O**

"Come in," T'Pol's voice came from the intercom as Tru waited for the door to open.

The door opened to reveal Commander Tucker sitting down on the floor.

"I hope I was not interrupting," Tru noticed the signs of a hasty clean up. "We had a training session?"

"No, not at all. We were, um..." Trip started.

T'Pol saved him. "Vulcan Neuropressure."

"Ah, good stress reliever," Tru said noticing the shades of green on T'Pol's cheeks were reaching as were the shades of red on Commander Tucker. It was clear, that it had been a bit more then that.

"If you will excuse me," he went towards the door. "Commander, nice to see you again."

The door closed behind Trip as Tru turned to T'Pol "You don't need to be ashamed."

"But, it is an emotion."

"Emotions are not bad," Tru tried to explain. "Surak's teachings were not to suppress your emotions. But to keep them from controlling you."

"That is pretty radical, even for T'Pau." T'Pol remarked.

"Emotional control is not emotional suppression." Tru expanded, remembering what her grandfather had once told her. "It is to know when and where to express them. Emotions are a tool, they can help or they can hurt. They can also guide, though they can easily mislead. This is why experiencing emotion is not enough. You need to understand them, to become one with them. Then you can truly keep them in balance. But, there is always a chance that you may lose control."

"I..." T'Pol began to speak, but trailed off realising Tru hadn't finished.

"Loosing control is not a bad thing, you learn more from a mistake than from success." Tru paused. "I believe you said something similar once to Ambassador Soval."

"I," T'Pol continued. "Wanted to thank you for what you did earlier."

"My pleasure," tru nodded.

"I did not know that you could do a mind meld."

"My grandfather taught me," Tru smiled. Though that smile T'Pol observed held a faint touch of sadness. "He travelled the Earth, learned so much from our world."

"I am glad," T'Pol acknowledged. "If not for you, I might have not gotten out of the healing trance."

"Well, the fact that you were able to pull it off," Tru complimented her. "And, that you did it without any formal training means that you're a strong telepath. Which will make this easier."

"I know you might have sensed some of..." T'Pol tried to say.

"Don't worry T'Pol, your secrets are safe with me. The ones I saw. As a doctor, my Hippocratic Oath is something very special to me."

"Thank you," T'Pol did an uncharacteristic attempt at a smile.

"You're getting better at it," Tru laughed. "You hurt my new younger brother and I swear, I'll kick your ass back to the Milky Way. Cradle robber!"

"I have no intention of hurting..." T'Pol started to say. "What did you just say?"

"Never mind," Tru said reaching out for the Katra points on T'Pol's face. "Time for the next lesson," Tru paused for a moment, calming herself inwardly. "My mind, to your mind..."

**O-O-O**

"Captain," Mayweather said glancing back at Archer who was sitting in the command chair watching the roiling view of hyperspace on the viewscreen. "Thirty seconds to the _Babylon 5_ hyperspace beacon."

"Stand by to revert back to normal space," he commanded. "Hoshi, hail _Columbia_ and the _Wreckers_."

At the communications station, Lieutenant Sato contacted the two ships. "You're on."

Ahead, the image on the viewscreen changed to show the view of two bridges. On the left, was the _Columbia_'s bridge, while the right side showed the _Wreckers_'s. "Miss Polinger, Captain Hernandez," Archer said. "We're almost there. You two ready?"

"_Standing by,_" Hernandez said smiling. "_I'll be glad to leave hyperspace. Nothing to look at._"

"_We'll activate the jump gate sequence on your command,_" Polinger said. "_Oh, one thing. There should be no need to hail Babylon 5__. They'll hail us. They'll pick up our silhouettes as we go through the jump gate. They'll recognise your silhouettes as unknown and initiate first contact procedures._"

"Understood," Archer said. "_Enterprise_, out." He glanced to his left, where Commander T'Pol was diligently working at her station. "You picking up anything on sensors?"

"Yes," T'Pol confirmed. "I'm reading a small satellite like object that appears to be emitting a continuous broadband tachyon transmission. Most likely the hyperspace beacon." T'Pol paused. "Ten seconds..."

"Hoshi," Archer said. "Tell Miss Polinger to activate the jump gate."

**O-O-O**

"Commander, jump gate activation," Lieutenant jg Corwin said from the pit in the centre of _Babylon 5_'s command and control deck. "Silhouette suggests it's the _Wreckers_ caravan and two unknowns."

"Unknown?" Commander Susan Ivanova, the stations executive officer, stood before the command console just in front of the large porthole looking out into space. Directing her gaze to the jump gate, she watched as it created the familiar blue jump point within the struts and waited for the trade caravan to emerge. _Wonder what Polinger found this time?_ Ivanova thought. An instant later, she saw five brief flashes of light deep within the jump gate as the _Wreckers _caravan emerged along with the two unknowns which appeared to be escorting the caravan. One of the unknowns towing a battlewagon on the end of a long cable.

The unknowns, Ivanova observed seemed to be comprised of a saucer with a catamaran like structure mounted on its top surface and leading to a roll bar-like structure at the rear of the two ships with a pair of pylons, each leading up to strange looking cylindrical nacelles. The nacelles glowed a bright red on their front ends and had blue glowing elements down their flanks. She wouldn't have called them beautiful looking, in the way the _White Star_ was. But, they did have an elegance about them.

"Yes, Commander," Corwin confirmed. "Looks vaguely Vree-like. But with differences. Should I initiate contact?"

"No," Ivanova said. "Get Captain Sheridan on the link. I think he needs to be here."

"Sir," Corwin informed her. "Isn't he in the hearing with Citizen G'Kar?"

"Damn it," Ivanova cursed. "Hail them and tell them to stand by. I'll contact the captain."

**O-O-O**

"We're back in normal space," T'Pol said aloud almost neutrally. Archer though, thought he could hear a slight sigh of relief come from her. "Subspace sensors appear to be operating normally." She had been in her healing trance for almost six hours, and then only the presence of Commander Tucker would comfort her. Archer was grateful for the training Commander Summers has been giving her during the past three days they had been in hyperspace. This had allowed her to come back to her station, were he needed her the most.

"Full scan," Archer commanded, rising from his chair and walking round to stand beside T'Pol. "What are we picking up?"

T'Pol turned away from her main console, activating the viewer behind her. "A small O'Neil style space station and numerous mid-sized spacecraft similar in design to the _Wreckers_."

"On screen," Archer said, directing his gaze forward. On it, he could see a long cylindrical shaped space station. The main body of which appeared to be slowly rotating. Not all of it rotated he observed. The station looked to have a spine mounted on it's top surface with a pair of docking clamps extending beyond the forward end. About three quarters the way back, he saw a set of twelve solar panels in sets of six mounted on either side that extended both above and below the station.

"My," Trip said looking up from the small engineering station on the right side of the bridge. "That must have been one hell of a job building a station like that. If I'm reading this right, it's over eight kilometres long and has a mass of two and half million tons."

"You call that small? It would dwarf any of our space stations," Reed said, taking a moment to glance at the image on the viewscreen. 

"If you go by Gerard O'Neill's original design, which called for a cylinder roughly thirty kilometres in length and six kilometres in diameter, it is small."T'Pol defended her statement.

"Captain," Sato said glancing up from her station. "Message from _Columbia_. They had no problems returning to normal space."

Archer nodded absently. "Biosigns?"

"Two hundred and seventy thousand," T'Pol said. "Humans and numerous unknown biosigns. It appears to be a very large population centre."

Archer smiled in agreement.

"Captain," Sato said. "_Babylon 5_ is instructing us to stand by. I think they're waiting for someone more senior in command to talk to us."

Archer simply nodded.

Meanwhile, deep within _Babylon 5_, Citizen G'Kar stood at the defendants table of the stations court room. He was flanked on his left by the station's security chief, Michael Garibaldi and on his right by Captain John Sheridan, the commanding officer of _Babylon 5_.

"Citizen G'Kar," the black robed female human judge enquired. "You are aware of the charges made against you?"

"I am," G'Kar confirmed solemnly.

"And yet, you still decline presence of counsel?" the judge asked, confusion evident on her face.

G'Kar just nodded at the judge who sat at the raised bench.

"Very well," the judge went on. "To the charges of assault on Ambassador Mollari, assault on Vir Cotto, use and purchase of prohibited material, how do you plead?

"Guilty, your honour." G'Kar said just as solemnly.

The judge nodded, then turned her gaze on Sheridan who rose in response. "Captain, you wished to speak on behalf of the defendant?"

"Yes, your honour." Sheridan began. "I would only like to point out that during the period he was under the influence of Dust, he was not acting rationally or deliberately. And, that may constitute extenuating circumstances."

"I'm sorry, Captain," the judge shook her head. "But, I can't agree. Had G'Kar seized the first person he came across, your argument might have carried some weight. But, he deliberately went to Mollari's quarters, assaulted and seized his person. In my book, that constitutes premeditation."

Sheridan nodded, glancing at G'Kar who reciprocated the gesture with a nod of his own. Then, he directed his gaze back to the judge.

She continued. "Since there are no outstanding point to be contested, and the plea has been entered. I am now ready to pass judgement. Citizen G'Kar, it is the decision of this court..." As she spoke, G'Kar maintained his solemn stance. "...that you be confined to this stations prison facilities for a period of no less than sixty days." She finished her statement, with a bang of her gavel.

With the judgement passed, Sheridan rose and moved away from G'Kar, allowing him to talk briefly with Garibaldi.

It was then, during this moment, he heard his comlink go off. Raising it to his mouth, he answered the call. "Sheridan, go."

"_Captain,_" He heard the filtered voice of Ivanova say. "_I think you had better get up here. The _Wreckers_ caravan just came through the jump gate with a pair of unknowns. I'd have followed first contact procedure myself. But..._"

Sheridan cursed inwardly. "But, what?"

"_One of the unknowns appears to have a disabled battlewagon under tow,_" Ivanova sounded worried. "_And, as you know we've still got Bester with us_."

Sheridan at once knew what she meant. They had to deal with this delicately. The last thing they needed was a psi cop like Bester throwing his weight into the mix. Even with his telepathy suppressed as it was. "Understood," Sheridan said. "I'll be right up."

**O-O-O**

Several tense minutes later, aboard _Enterprise_, Lieutenant Sato turned to Archer. "Captain," she began. "We're being hailed by _Babylon 5_."

_Finally_, Archer thought to himself. He was wondering if they were ever going to signal them properly. "On screen," he commanded.

Looking up at the viewscreen, he saw the image change from the view of the station to that of a fair haired male of similar age to himself. Maybe couple years older. The person he spoke to, appeared to be wearing a very martial looking blue uniform with a dark brown leather collar and band down the uniforms right breast. In the background, Archer could see several others working on various consoles and displays.

"_Unidentified ship,_" the male began. "_I'm Captain John Sheridan of the Earth Alliance Station _Babylon 5_. Please identify yourselves and your reason for being here._"

Archer smiled pleasantly. At least this man had the decency to transmit a visual feed along with the audio. He also seamed a lot more reasonable. But, whether he could be trusted, had yet to be seen. "I'm Captain Jonathan Archer..." he stated as he watched the image on the viewscreen. "... of the Starship _Enterprise_. The other starship, is the _Columbia_ under Captain Hernandez. I'm not sure I see why I have to explain my reason for being here. I was under the impression this was a free port, isn't it?"

Sheridan nodded. "_It is,_" he confirmed. "_But, under the circumstances..._"

"... I feel I have to ask." _Especially given what's happening back home and your apparent human appearance, _Sheridan thought sitting back in chair at his personal station on the command deck.

"_Captain,_" Archer said. He was an apparent human male, and judging from the image on his monitor, was dressed in what appeared to be a blue jumpsuit-like uniform similar to what he remembered NASA astronauts used to wear. "_It was not our intention to come here at all. At least,_" he paused a beat. "_It wasn't until we answered the distress signal from the _Wreckers_. They hired us to escort them here after we successfully dealt with the raiders who were attacking them._"

Sheridan nodded. That answered his question as to why they'd come here and why they had that battlewagon under tow. "I take it," he said. "That you have prisoners aboard your vessel?"

"_Not on mine,_" Archer said. "_But, the _Columbia _does. I know Captain Hernandez wants to get them off her ship._"

"Understood," Sheridan said. "Would you and your senior staff like to come over? You can hand over your prisoners, collect the reward and we can discuss things formally."

"_We'll be over in twenty minutes,_" On the display, he saw Archer nod and then glance off to the side. The monitor reverted to displaying a systems diagram of the station.

"Susan," Sheridan asked glancing to the side where Ivanova had been covertly monitoring the communication. "What did you make of him?"

"He seems pretty straight forward, I could tell you more when we meet." She paused looking at her screen. "I can tell you this much, the lead ship just altered it's course pulling enough g's to squash whoever is in it." she paused again. "Hmm... It's now holding position relative to the station. Whoever he is. They must have very advanced propulsion."

**O-O-O**

"That was a trip I can tell my grandchildren about," Kat looked around the bridge.

"We should contact the Transport Association," Mal reminded her. "They will need more credits than we have to offer, and more work."

"Plus, we can get more high end merchandise due to their protection." She knew her brother too well. "Uh oh."

"What is it?"

"I just got the news," Kat pointed to the monitor "Looks like pops got himself in trouble," She shook her head." he is in the stations prison facilities."

"What the hell did he do now?" Mal, despite his Narn Heritage was raised and lived with humans most of his life, a fact which alienated him from most of his culture. With one exception. Ambassador G'Kar, or 'Pops' as they called him. They had met him when he had discovered that there was an ambassador from the Narn on the station, over two years ago. From him, he'd learnt a bit more about his Narn heritage. Even though G'Kar had offered to bring him back to 'his people', he would never leave his sister or his adopted culture. G'Kar had grown close to both of them, even granting both of them dual citizenship. Hence both him and Kat had both Earth Alliance and Narn passports. It had helped greatly with their many ventures, as people tended to trust either one or the other, but not both.

"It looks like he attacked the Centauri ambassador, Londo Mollari," she could see why he would do such a thing, but it was too rash.

"Sounds just like him," Kat nodded. "Call up the transport association; we also need to make arrangements to go see him."

Kat knew that the two hours of deceleration in order to dock with babylon 5 was going to drive Mal crazy.

**O-O-O**

"_We've entered the parking orbit, assigned to us by _Babylon 5_._" Hernandez's could be seen on the viewscreen. Her expression eager. Hernandez had yet to be involved in any first contact situations, and she apparently intended to savour it as much as Archer did.

"Ready for your first first contact?" Archer asked grinning as he glancing up at her.

"_Yes,_" Hernandez's grin faded a moment. "_We're getting the prisoners into their shuttlepod, now. I was just about to head down to the launch bay._"

"Good," Archer nodded. "We were just about to head over ourselves. Lieutenant Sato," Archer continued as Hernandez's image winked out and was replaced by a view of the space station. "Please notify _Babylon 5_ that we're ready to head over."

"Yes, sir," Sato replied sounding a little disappointed that she wasn't joining them. Hoshi, enjoyed first contacts almost as much as Archer did because of the new languages it brought her into contact with. "_Babylon 5_ has cleared the landing pattern; we've got priority clearance."

"Hoshi," Archer said. "You'll get your chance to go aboard. Besides, I think we're going to be here a while." He glanced over to the engineering station. "Trip," Archer continued. "I don't need to tell you to take good care of _Enterprise_." Archer said as he headed for the turbolift, allowing the chief engineer to take his seat.

"I will, Captain," Trip assured him glancing back from the command chair he now occupied. "You take care of her as well.".

"We will Trip," Archer responded knowing his concerns.

**O-O-O**

Sheridan was probably enjoying this more then he should. The reason he'd first joined EarthForce was so that he could go on the greatest adventure of his life. He'd wanted to be an explorer, not stuck in some tin can tied to a desk; attempting to mediate disputes between any two or more of the various alien races represented on _Babylon 5_. It was rare, he knew, for someone in his position to have first contact with a new race. Especially so deep inside known space.

"They've just launched their shuttles," Ivanova said coming alongside him. "They should be here in few minutes." Ivanova paused checking a readout at the command station. "Damn," she corrected herself. "Make that a minute; those ships are fast."

"What's our friend Bester up to right now?" Sheridan asked, worried that the psi cop could throw a spanner into the works. If he learnt of the first contact situation, he be barging his way in trying to learn if they had telepaths.

"Talking with his superiors," Ivanova said darkly as the two headed through the exit. "Assuming he's telling the truth; which I doubt. I just can't shake the feeling, he's hiding something."

Sheridan silently agreed. "When isn't Bester hiding something," he paused as they arrived at a transport tube. "All right, lets go." Raising the hand he wore his link on, he activated it. "Sheridan to Garibaldi."

"_Garibaldi,_" his security chief could be heard saying. "_Go._"

"Michael," Sheridan told him. "I need you to get down to the VIP dock. "We've got a first contact situation, and they want to hand over prisoners."

"_Swell,_" Garibaldi's filtered voice replied. _"I'll be there shortly. Want me to bring along a couple deputies?_"

**O-O-O**

The docking bay re-pressurised itself, while both crews waited. When after a minute, the bay had pressurised, Security Chief Michael Garibaldi looked at the shuttles in small wonder; they were so small, yet also so fast. A moment later, the doors in the side of the three shuttlepods opened up revealing their occupants. As the crews emerged, he noticed the soldier-types dressed in combat camouflage fatigues with some sort of sleek black rifle held at the ready in their hands. He also noted that what he presumed were the officers, were also armed with some sort of side arm in holsters at their waists.

"I am sorry," Garibaldi said holding his hands up with his palms outward. "But, there are no weapons allowed on Babylon 5. Except for authorized personnel."

"Not a problem," the lead male said nodding. "All right, you heard him. Leave your phase pistols and pulse rifles in the shuttlepods."

"Captain," one of the male officers said in a very English sounding accent. This officer, Garibaldi noted, had red piping over his shoulders. "Are you sure it's wise to leave ourselves unarmed. We're going into an unknown situation. If they do prove..." Almost at once, Garibaldi knew this guy was his counterpart. He seemed to be just as paranoid about security as he himself was.

"Malcolm," the one who'd agreed to leave their weapons aside said. Absently, he noticed that this officer had yellowish piping on his shoulders. "This is their station. We follow their rules while we're aboard."

"Yes, sir," the one called Malcolm replied as he took off his pistol and placed it back inside the shuttlepod. A moment later, the other soldiers and officers began removing their weapons from their holsters and placed them in the shuttlepod. When they all appeared to be disarmed, Garibaldi followed Sheridan and Ivanova's lead in approaching the shuttles. Shuttlepods, he corrected himself inwardly. Remembering what he'd heard one of them saying.

The lead officer, stepped forward. "I'm Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starship _Enterprise_," Archer said pleasantly. He indicated the woman with long dark hair tied back in a ponytail. This woman also had yellow piping. "This is Captain Erika Hernandez of _Columbia_."

_Guess that coloured piping indicates what division they serve in_, Garibaldi thought to himself.

"Pleasure," Sheridan said shaking hands with Archer. "I'm Captain John Sheridan, commanding officer and military governor of _Babylon 5_. First off, I just want to thank you for rescuing our citizens."

"Our pleasure," Hernandez said. "Starfleet regulations require us to respond to any allied or neutral vessel in distress. It's great to be part of a first contact situation. Jon has been doing that for the past three years. Made the rest of us jealous." She paused thoughtfully. "Oh sorry. Manners. This is my security officer Lieutenant Alexa Folie, and my chief medical officer Commander Tru Summers."

Archer nodded. "This is my executive and science officer Commander T'Pol and my security officer Lieutenant Malcolm Reed." As Archer spoke. Garibaldi allowed himself a slight smile. He'd been right in his thinking about the English sounding officer.

"I guess it's my turn," Sheridan chuckled. He seemed a bit over exited, Garibaldi thought, not that he could blame him. This was the job Sheridan had originally wanted. "My executive officer, Commander Susan Ivanova, and the chief of security on _Babylon 5_, Michael Garibaldi."

"Then it is you who I need to talk to," the dark skinned, green eyed security chief from _Columbia _came over to him. "I'm here to escort the prisoners to you're holding facilities so that we can unshackle them for you."

"Thanks," was all he could say. Whoever these aliens were, they had extremely attractive females. It also seemed that they were a mix of two races. _Either that_, he thought. _Or it's some sort of mutation_. "Captain," Garibaldi said looking at his commanding officer. "You'll be all right?"

"Yeah," Sheridan confirmed. "Escort Lieutenant Folie and their prisoners to the holding cells."

The security detail grabbed the prisoners as both security chiefs exited the bay. A few moments later a lieutenant entered the area with a printed letter. As John read it, Archer noted Sheridan's face become taut with concern and seemed get somewhat upset. "Idiot," Archer could have sworn he heard Sheridan mutter under his breath.

"Captain," Sheridan looked up from the communique. "After I hailed you, regulations required me to make a report back to Earth Central and EarthGov. "They just sent me this report." Sheridan paused. "Am I right in saying, you had a run in at the Wolf 359 Deep Space Rendezvous Point with an EarthForce destroyer?"

Archer nodded neutrally, wondering where this was leading.

"I've been ordered by General Hague and the joint chiefs of staff to formally apologise for the actions of Captain James McTaggart and the crew of the _EAS Invincible_. Their actions were neither authorised nor approved by EarthGov, or the joint chiefs. I'm also to inform you that at some point in the next week, the _Invincible_ will be making a stop over here and that McTaggart is to apologise in person." Sheridan handed the communique to Archer. "You can keep this copy and read it later at your leisure."

"Well," Archer said trying to lighten the mood. "At least you're not all trigger happy."

Sheridan smiled, indicating the bay's personnel exit. "If you will follow us? I've had a conference room set aside so we can talk in more privacy. You shouldn't have to worry about security, we have personal all over the station and you're VIPs after all."

"So how exactly did you end up in our space?" Sheridan asked as the group walked down a corridor. "Also if you don't mind me asking, what species are you?"

"Believe it or not I'm fully human," Archer said glancing at Sheridan. "So is Captain Hernandez, and most of the crew here. With the exception of Commanders T'Pol and Summers."

"Summers," Ivanova said glancing at the _Columbia_'s chief medical officer. That's a human name."

"Yes," Summers nodded. "I am three quarters human, one quarter Vulcan. Commander T'Pol though, is a full blooded Vulcan."

"It seems you have a long story to tell," Ivanova responded. She paused, thinking how to ask her next question. "Is an all female officer crew normal for your people?" She'd noticed, that Hernandez's crew seemed at least to be almost completely female.

"Every ship has it's own demographics," Hernandez said. "Some ships like _Enterprise_ have as many females as males aboard. Others can have more males or females. _Columbia_ seems to have a lot of female officers, so I can't say yes or no." Hernandez admitted.

They approached the conference room, Archer saw that it had clearly been set up for this type of meeting. In the centre, was a table with what he was beginning to recognise as the EarthForce insignia insignia etched onto the glass top. It was also worn as a badge on left breast of the EarthForce officers uniform; a stylised 'E' over 'A'. On one of the walls, Archer could see audio-visual equipment and what appeared to be a small computer terminal.

"We have ice water," Sheridan said. "We didn't exactly know what species you were and weren't sure about dietary requirements, so we stuck with the basics."

"Commander T'Pol is vegetarian," Archer supplied. "But otherwise we can eat most normal foods."

"Lieutenant Reed..." Summers added automatically. "...has an allergy to Bromelain; commonly found in pineapples, though he still eats them I hear." She shot the Lieutenant a disapproving scowl, unaware that he took regular injections so he could eat them. "Lieutenant Folie is lactose intolerant."

"It helps to have a medical officer around," Sheridan laughed to ease the embarrassed Archer who had forgotten all about Reeds allergies.

"Please sit," Ivanova gestured as the group sat down. A moment later, emerging from another entrance, they saw some of Babylon 5's enlisted personal bring in the ice water.

"Well Captain," Archer began leaning on the table. "I believe you want some answers?"

"Yes," Sheridan nodded. "We do."

"I think Commander T'Pol can explain this better than I can," Archer said glancing T'Pol. "Commander?"

"I'm listening," Sheridan said to her.

**O-O-O**

Garibaldi's day was certainly getting better. He might be dealing with prisoners, but at least they're weren't psi cops. And as far as psi cops went, he thought Bester was the worst. Surprisingly, he thought, the prisoners that were being handed over actually seemed glad to be going into his custody. Silently, he wondered what they'd seen that had mollified them so much.

"So you're saying you're human?" Garibaldi said conversationally as he led the _Columbia_'s security chief to _Babylon 5_'s holding cells.

"Yes," Lieutenant Folie rolled her eyes, a habit she'd picked up from Lieutenant Lass. "I just said that."

"Swell," Garibaldi said. _Guess I had that coming, didn't I?_ "So, how did you end up in security? And, where you from?"

"Family tradition," Folie said. "My family have a history of being cops in Detroit, Michigan and Beverly Hills, California. At least until my family moved to Mars. I however, broke that tradition by joining Starfleet."

"Wait a minute," Garibaldi was confused. _Detroit? Beverly Hills? Mars?_ _How the hell can they be from the Sol system?_ "Look, Miss," Garibaldi conveniently forgot her rank. "I was born on Mars. Next thing you're going to tell me is that Vorlons are really angels."

"Lieutenant, not Miss," Folie said a little annoyed. "I know it sounds strange. Your captain is probably thinking the same thing." Folie paused, it was her turn to be confused. "Vorlons?"

**O-O-O**

Ivanova's mouth was still hanging open. "Susan," Sheridan asked. "Are you okay? Do you want to look like a fish?"

"Are you kidding?" Ivanova blurted out, forgetting about the presence of their guests for a moment. "They claim that they are from another Earth. Which exists in another galaxy to boot! The _Columbia_'s executive officer is supposedly a descendent of the great Marco Ramius."

"Oh great," Sheridan mouthed to himself. "Please God, have someone stop her from going on and on about her Russian heritage and how great Ramius is."

"Can I meet him?" Ivanova asked, unabashed. "To confirm your story." Marco was quiet handsome. She mentally slapped herself. These people are unknowns, they could be lying through their teeth. _I mustn't let Russian Pride overtake common sense_, Ivanova told herself.

"Her... Sean Ramius is female. She also makes a killer Salad Olivie," Hernandez corrected.

"Darn my Russian pride," Ivanova scolded herself again. _My favourite form of potato salad_. Her mouth opened again.

"Susan, please stop it." Sheridan was clearing getting unnerved.

**O-O-O**

Standing before the entrance to the cell, Garibaldi glared at the last prisoner as he was ordered into the last cell. "Step back into the cell," Garibaldi ordered.

The prisoner complied. "And extend your arms out in front," Folie said. "Hands just beyond the door."

As the prisoner complied yet again, Folie held her control padd up and pressed a couple of controls. The cuffs separated and dropped to the floor just outside the cell.

"That's the last of them," Garibaldi said, shutting the cell door on the prisoner.

"Yeah," As Folie reached down, picking up the cuffs, she heard it again. "Chief, what is that racket?"

Garibaldi smiled. "Oh, that's just Citizen G'Kar singing to his heart''s content. I think he's happier in here, than out there." He indicated the station.

As they walked down the cell block, trying to ignore G'Kar, Garibaldi activated his link. "Garibaldi to Sheridan."

"_Sheridan, go._"

"Prisoners are secure," Garibaldi told him.

"Understood, Chief," Sheridan said before closing the channel.

"Lieutenant," Garibaldi said eyeing the cuffs. "Those look impressive."

"Sorry?" Folie said.

"The cuffs you used," Garibaldi explained. "The way you didn't need physical contact with the prisoner to remove them."

"Yeah," Folie agreed. "Usually, once they're in place, we don't remove them. We just separate or attach the two halves."

"Wish we had that," Garibaldi said as they arrived at his office.

Folie paused in thought, considering what he just said. The technology behind the cuffs was pretty basic. She doubted it would be a violation to conveniently lose a pair. "Here," she said giving him a pair of the cuffs and the control padd. "Keep them. Just don't tell anyone I gave you them."

Garibaldi smiled, escorting her into what was the nerve centre for station security.

As soon as she stepped in, she was immediately immersed by a multitude of overlapping sounds and information. In the centre of the room was a free-standing transparent vertical cross section of the station. Just inside, was a fairly large station at which one of Garibaldi's deputies was sitting, watching some of the security footage. His uniform, Folie thought, didn't fit him properly.

"Lieutenant," Garibaldi said. "I don't suppose your captain has a credit account to deposit your reward credits into?"

"No, sorry," Folie said simply.

"Not a problem," Garibaldi told her. "Zack, run off a cashiers cheque would you. Lieutenant, it can be exchanged for hard credits at any bank."

"Okay then," The cheque printed out, ripping it off he handed it to her. "Here it is. You can get hard credits at any bank."

"Thank you," Folie accepted the slip of paper.

"Well, you did a public service," Garibaldi said, escorting her back out the room. It was time for him to escort her back her own people. "Ah, just to let you know. We will need to have a commissioned officer from either ship to provide a witnesses testimony."

"That is fine," Folie nodded as they walked down the corridor. "I will inform the captain."

"You know," Garibaldi said conversationally. "I was having a look at the securecam footage of the battlewagon. You cut into it pretty neatly."

"Not neatly enough," Folie half growled to herself. "We actually tried to avoid casualties," Folie explained. "It was our intention to take out only their power plant. Unfortunately, doing so also disabled their decompression safeties. So when we punched through their hull, most of the crew..."

Garibaldi nodded. She didn't have to say any more. Instead, he changed the subject. "Tell me about your Mars."

**O-O-O**

"When I was speaking with Miss Polinger en route here," Archer said. "She told me you have an organisation called Psi Corps?"

"Yes," Sheridan confirmed. "Officially, Psi Corps exist to protect, control and identify telepaths. Human telepaths that are born in the Earth Alliance, that is." _Although, people like Bester would say otherwise_. Sheridan mentally added. These humans were autonomous and separate from the Earth Alliance and were not subject to Earth Alliance laws concerning telepaths.

"From what we have heard they are not very well liked," Archer commented.

"Not really," Sheridan agreed, thinking of Bester. "No."

"Why do you oppress your telepathic population?" T'Pol enquired.

Sheridan thought about how to put that. "We have to make sure they get the proper training so as to not hurt themselves nor others," he explained. "While I don't agree with most of what Psi Corps does. I do agree with that." Sheridan paused. "If I may ask, how do you handle your telepaths?"

"We don't," Archer said. "We don't have any human telepaths."

"Really? None?" Sheridan rose his eyebrows in surprise.

"We have some people with clairvoyance," Archer said thoughtfully. "Basic prediction of cards. Mostly stuff attributed to enhanced intuition. Most of our experience with telepathy, has been with other races. They're either telepathic or not."

"You have entire races who are telepathic?" Ivanova asked, understanding the implications.

"Yes," T'Pol confirmed. "It tends to vary with the individual and the race. For instance most of my race are touch telepaths." T'Pol expanded. "However until very recently, most Vulcans considered use of these abilities as abhorrent behaviour. As a result, most Vulcans lack the training to use them." T'Pol finished.

"You mean you're a telepath?" Ivanova stepped back fast.

T'Pol nodded, taking a sip of her water. "Do not be afraid, I am not well trained in telepathy. Additionally, I would consider it an invasion of privacy to use those abilities without permission."

"Sorry," Ivanova said taking her seat again. "But, I just don't trust telepaths."

"But," Commander Summers looked at her for a moment. "You're telepathic aren't you?"

"I thought," Ivanova said accusingly. "You didn't use your abilities without permission?"

"We don't," Summers reassured her. "But, my mixed heritage has given me the ability to tell when other telepaths are nearby."

**O-O-O**

"You telling me," Garibaldi asked as he approached the conference room being used for this first contact meeting. "Your Mars has state rights?"

"Yes," Folie said. "Ever since it's founding. They have an equal voice in the senate. It set the precedence for the other colonies we founded."

"Swell. Your United Earth seems like a good place to live." Garibaldi thought aloud. "Too good," he added under his breath.

"It is, ever been to the original Disneyland in Anaheim or Sea World in San Diego? I loved watching the killer whales. Too bad the humpbacks went extinct."

"San Diego exists on your Earth?"

"Yes, I have been there once. Went during my academy training. It was a nice city."

"Do you have pictures?"

"Why do you ask?"

Garibaldi scratched his head "Our San Diego was nuked by terrorists."

"Ouch" was all she could say.

"Yeah," Garibaldi agreed. "It's now an underwater memorial. At least, we still have humpback whales!"

"I'd love to see them!" Folie said as they entered the conference room.

"See what, Lieutenant?" Hernandez asked her as her voice had carried over.

"They still have humpback whales, sir. Sorry for being loud." Folie took a deep breath, calming herself down. She'd loved sea animals, ever since she was a child. Her fascination with the sea and everything in it, she suspected, had been because Mars lacked oceans.

The meeting continued as the two officers took their places.

"Do not worry, Commander Ivanova's telepathic ability will stay a secret. Especially from Psi Corp." Archer assured them.

"I can't speak directly for the United Earth government," Commander Summers paused. "But, should they find out, and you need protection. I believe the captains would be happy to give you or anyone who does not wish to be under the thumb of the Psi Corps asylum aboard our ships."

"Yes we would," Archer agreed with the idea of giving shelter to persecuted humans.

"Assuming the telepathic abilities are similar, I could even help them learn how to not only control themselves but to stop anyone from scanning them or even detecting them."

"Training a telepath could be a chore," Ivanova said, remembering some of the telepaths she'd known. "They usually have emotional problems."

"Who doesn't have emotional problems," Summers nodded. "We are all sentient beings. I do have a degree in psychotherapy as well as exobiology and my Medical Doctorate."

"That is good to hear," Ivanova said, she sensed that they were honest. But, it frightened her. Her mother's suicide still lingered. Right now she didn't know this Tru Summers, but time would tell if she would take her offer of help. Nothing usually came free, she knew all too well.

"Since we have gotten the essentials out of the way," Sheridan said calmly. "Would you care for a tour of the station?"

"Yes we would love to see the station," Hernandez and Archer both said at the same time. "Looks like you owe me a drink Jon." Hernandez added.

"Blast it," Archer pretended to be smitten and laughed.

"By the way," Sheridan said after moment. "I have to warn you to be careful of anyone with the Psi Corps insignia. We've currently got an official from that organisation with us. Alfred Bester."

"Should we worry about him scanning us?" T'Pol asked.

"He's a psi cop," Sheridan informed her. "Normally, they're job is to simply enforce the Earth Alliance's laws regarding telepaths. But, I trust him only as far as I can throw him. Right now, we've got him on a drug that suppresses his abilities. However, it should be wearing off soon, and I wouldn't put it past him to try something if we run into him."

**O-O-O**

The cell opened as a Human and a Narn entered it. "Hi Pops."

"Kat," G'Kar said rising from where he'd been sitting to hug her. "G'Quinn! It is good to see you two."

"I wish it was not under these circumstances," Kat told him. "I heard what you did."

"No, it is better this way." G'Kar whispered. "Being in here allows me to think." He resumed his normal voice. "So, how was the trip?"

"Very exciting," Kat told him. "We met humans from another galaxy. They seem like good people and very technologically advanced, I would say on par if not greater then the minbari."

"More advanced than the Minbari?" G'Kars eyes lit up with excitement as Kat nodded. "Tell me more!"


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"Now for the most important question," Garibaldi announced, scratching his head as Sheridan gave an inward groan. "Do you have Daffy Duck?"

"You mean Donald?" Alexa looked confused.

"What?" Garibaldi looking utterly shocked.

"Kidding," Alexa smiled. "Had you going there for a moment. We've got all the famous Loony Toon characters. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig..."

"Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century!" Garibaldi grinned at Commander Summers impression of the announcer. He was, to say the least, very impressed.

"So you share some of our cultural history?" Sheridan glanced at Archer as they walked down a corridor.

"Yes," Archer agreed. "It's beginning to look that way. It's strange how much we have in common. Given how far apart United Earth is from the Earth Alliance, I'd have thought our histories would have been completely different."

"I hope you don't find this an odd question," Sheridan asked. "But, have you ever heard of a an old television show called Dallas?" Sheridan seemed a bit nervous. It wasn't exactly something one would normally ask at a first contact situation. But, he just had to know.

"No, I haven't," Archer was never into television shows. "I usually follow water polo and other sports. Not television shows."

"It is a 20th Century show. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I haven't seen it." Summers informed him.

"You see," Sheridan said neutrally. "We have lost the episode where it is revealed who shot the main character, JR. So, we have no clue as to who it was who shot JR. It is one of the questions which everyone especially the Vree and the Brakiri wanted to know." He tried to explain. "It is a big cultural mystery of sorts. The Brakiri even have a two billion credit reward for a copy of the episode."

"I don't have a clue," Summer said humorously. "I am more into science fiction and fantasy. If I may, I could ask someone else." She took out her communicator and flipped it open, activating it. "Summers to _Columbia_."

"Columbia _here,_" a woman's voice could be heard through the device.

"George, didn't you say you watched Dallas once with a friend?"

"_Oh God,_" the filtered voice of Lieutenant Georgia Lass could be heard saying. "_Don't remind me. Roxy made me watch that horridly dated show. I wanted to wash out my eyes with holy water after seeing it._" Summers could picture George shaking her head and rolling her eyes in her signature move of disgust.

"Well, do you remember who shot JR?" She hoped that George would remember.

"_Are you trying seriously to get me to hurt you on purpose?_" Summers could feel the death stare from over the hand held communicator.

"It's important," She pleaded, then added in a small bribe. "I'll let you borrow that red dress you like."

"_Well,_" Lass paused, trying to remember. "_It was Kristin Shepard. They really liked to show women as sluts back then. Fucking retarded chauvinistic male producers._"

"George, Archer and Hernandez are with me," Summers said carefully. "So are the senior members of the station."

"_Oh, oops! Sorry!_" Lass's voice rose a few octaves.

Summers shook her head. "Do we have a copy of the episode on file?"

"_You have to be pulling my leg, why would you want that?_" Lass knew that Summers had a weird taste in movies. All the sci-fi crap. She was more into the action movies.

"There is a two billion credit reward for a copy from an alien race called the Brakiri." Summers explained.

"_You're fucking kidding me,_" Lass sounded incredulous. "_Let me check._" For a moment, the channel went quiet. Well mostly quiet, Summers acute hearing could make out the sound of tapping and and reciprocating bleeps. "N_o, unfortunately not. Though we would be charged with a war crime for spreading that show across the cosmos_"

"I approve of George," Ivanova said quietly, causing everyone to stare at her. Sheridan's mouth opened in shock. "And he tells me I look like a fish."

**O-O-O**

"Their technology is amazing," Kat started, leaning up against the cell wall. "We felt more like we were in a luxury hotel rather than a starship."

"True. I bring gifts," Mal took out a refrigerated container which G'Kar opened up.

"Carrot juice?" he inquired as he opened the drink container sipping it. "Tastes fresh, and Swedish meat balls." He added, noticing the rest of the container.

"Yes, he had that almost every day," Kat complained jovially. "Pig!"

"Big talk ," Mal countered. "Miss 'I must have my cup of hot chocolate and chocolate bars every day.'" Mal teased back.

"Do they have hydroponics?" G'Kar wondered as few ships had that luxury.

"Not from what I was told," Kat answered. "But, they can resequence proteins and carbohydrates to make simple foods and beverages."

"So, this is recycled material," G'Kar drank more of it. "Good stuff."

"Yes, we were surprised also," Kat agreed. "Though the ships do carry some stored foods as well as the resequenced material."

"We had real beef steak!" Kat remembered fondly. It was a rare to find fresh meat on a starship. "They made good Swedish meatballs as well. That is why we brought you some."

"Besides their great food," G'Kar enquired. "What makes you say they are more advanced than the Minbari?"

"They are able to accelerate to ten percent of light light speed within seconds," Mal told them. "They have artificial gravity on shuttles smaller than this cell, and they were able to gut a battlewagon with a single shot of their shipboard weaponry."

G'Kar's eye balls were close to coming out of his sockets.

"That is not all," Mal remembered. "They don't use hyperspace to travel the stars. They used something called warp drive."

"Warp drive?" G'Kar had never heard of such a technology.

"All I know is that they generate a field to bypass the light speed barrier and push the ship beyond the speed of light, all within real space." Kat explained.

"This sounds familiar," G'Kar said. "I seem to recall the Centauri had a similar drive. But, they could only go a little faster than the speed of light, which didn't allow for very efficient travel between the stars. They were never able to perfect it either. They abandoned it when they discovered hyperspace. So how did they discover this warp drive?"

"Someone called Zefram Cochrane, the humans in that galaxy learned to travel the stars on their own. They then made first contact with a race called the Vulcans, who helped them clean up their environment, repair their ecosystem from the damage inflicted in their third world war. They eliminated poverty and hunger. All this within two generations."

"It must have cost them a pretty penny," G'Kar thought aloud, remembering the outrageous prices the Centauri had charged the Earth Alliance for jump drives and other technologies.

Mal chuckled. "That, is what I thought as well. They gave those particular technologies freely."

**O-O-O**

"Wow," Archer said glancing out the window of the core shuttle as it left the forward part of the station and emerged into the main part of _Babylon 5 – _ a massive cylindrical garden. "Quite the garden spot you've got here, Captain." Looking down, Archer could see intermixed with the greenery various structures from what looked like commercial and office complexes to residential blocks.

"Yes," Sheridan agreed. "That was my reaction too when I first took command of _Babylon 5_, just over a year ago now. We call it the garden, and it runs all the way from the aft half of red sector – the commercial heart of the station – to grey sector where most of the stations maintenance areas are. There is everything from a sports complex, swimming pools, a baseball field to meditation gardens. It's even got a zen garden."

"Do they hold water polo matches?" Archer asked, remembering the time he'd jokingly asked Commander Tucker if they could get a swimming pool aboard _Enterprise_.

"You know," Sheridan said. "I think they have from time to time. Not that I ever get the chance to go for a swim these days. The most I manage to get is the occasional pitching session on the baseball field."

"That's where he goes when he's frustrated," Garibaldi said informally. "So he can work out his aggression at various diplomats."

"Know the feeling," Archer agreed. "Getting the hang of playing baseball on an O'Neill must have been a chore." He was remembering the cloister effect associated with centrifugal force used to produce the effect of gravity.

"Huh?" Ivanova said, looking confused. "What do you mean?"

"Yes, the players have to learn to adjust for the cloister effect," Garibaldi replied making Ivanova groan inwardly. Starfleet people seem to have a good amount of knowledge on things. Archer must have read up on the physics of the station before they arrived. She made a mental note that Garibaldi was smarter then he let on, she always suspected this, but this was something she could not overlook.

"Captain," T'Pol said. "I noticed on the station map, that there are a further two further sectors. What are they?"

At once, Sheridan and Ivanova winced. "Brown sector and fusion plant. Brown sector is an area of the station that has never been fully fitted out." Ivanova answered for Sheridan. "The area is inhabited mostly by the lurkers. It's not a nice place exactly to visit."

Archer's communicator came to life. He flipped it open. "Archer here."

"_Captain,_" Lieutenant Sato's voice could be heard saying. "_Sorry to bother you. But, the _Babylon 5 _transport association wants to meet with representatives from our ships to iron out the deal the _Wreckers_ proposed._"

"Alright, have Ensign Mayweather fetch Lieutenant Lass and go meet them."

"_Captain, a request?_"

"Yes, you can join them," Archer said smiling inwards. "After all, they might need a translator."

"_Thank you, sir,_" the communication ended, but he could imagine her cheering on the other side. She had been itching to visit the station ever since they had arrived.

"Sorry to be prying, what deal?" Sheridan enquired.

"Well, to put it bluntly," Archer said as he put his communicator away. "Our credits are limited and we will eventually need spare parts, and other materials. We are offering our services as armed escorts."

"Captain, do you mind if we go meet up with them? I'd like to go see the zen garden." Summers asked.

"Sure," Hernandez agreed. "Take Lieutenant Folie with you."

"Yes, sir," Folie acknowledged. To Garibaldi. "Come with?" Garibaldi nodded.

"I'll also help escort them," Ivanova spoke up. "Besides, I want to meet this Lieutenant Lass; she seems like a person I would like."

"Swell," was all Garibaldi could say.

"Then it is settled?" Hernandez asked.

"Yes," Archer nodded.

"Good, you owe me that drink." Hermendez teased.

"Speaking of which," Sheridan suggested. "Why don't I take you to Earhearts. The station's EarthForce personnel club bar."

"Sounds like a plan," Reed said who needed a good stiff drink, after sitting through a very long and boring meeting.

**O-O-O**

"Come on Travis," Lieutenant Sato said rising from her station. "We've just been given permission to go over."

"What?" Commander Tucker said glancing up at the communications officer and helmsman. "How come you two get to go over the station before I do?"

"Captain's orders," Ensign Mayweather said grinning as the relief helmsman took over his station. "Besides, I think the captain wants you to keep his chair warm for him."

"So now I'm a chair warmer," Trip said giving Travis and Hoshi a mock glower. "Remind me to tell the captain to bar you two from future landing parties."

"Oh, Ensign," Hoshi said glancing back at her station as she called the turbolift. "Contact _Columbia_, tell Lieutenant Lass we'll meet her in their launch bay."

"Aye, sir," the relief officer said as he went to work at the communications station.

"And, Commander," Hoshi said as she and Travis stepped into the turbolift. "That will never happen as long as Captain Archer needs a translator."

"And, a haggler," Maywether added as the turbolift closed.

**O-O-O**

"They give the technologies freely?" G'Kar asked, not sure he'd heard that right. He'd never heard of any race who gave away technology freely.

"Yes, they are very much into humanitarian aid." Kat proudly said, with Mal nodding to confirm.

"Then the home world can be healed, once we free it from the Centauri" G'Kar paused in his thinking.

"They also protect races who have not achieved warp," Mal added. "They do not interfere with their cultures nor enslave them." He was thinking bitterly about how the Centauri had taken the young Narn race and turned them into slaves. "While they do observe and study the culture of races without warp, they wait until they have achieved it, before making first contact. This way they can talk with them on an even footing."

"I want you two to help them as much as you can," G'Kar wished Narn was in the other galaxy rather then this one. They seemed to know how to treat other races and cultures with respect. Something this galaxy needed a big dose of.

"Yes, maybe they can help us free Narn!" Mal said grinning.

"Don't be foolish young one," G'Kar told him. "They are still only two ships. We will need to earn their confidence, but if they are as good as you claim, they would be powerful allies." He reached into his pockets "Here is access to some accounts that the Centauri did not manage to get."

"You want us to buy their technology?" Kat asked.

"No, from what you tell me they will need materials, you will need the currency in case they require assistance."

"But, aren't we manipulating them?" Kat protested.

"They help the weak," G'Kar said. "They respect other cultures. Most importantly they protected you when you needed it the most. Actions are stronger than words." He paused, looking up at the ceiling. "I need to think more." He faced the two again. "Have faith. Help these people with their troubles, and who knows, we might get something great in return. The universe is good about that. You humans call it Karma, I believe."

**O-O-O**

"Hey, Lieutenant. Over here," Summers waved as she saw Lieutenants Lass and Sato with Ensign Mayweather entered the currently empty passengers lounge.

"Hey Tru," Lass said. "Nice to finally see a friendly face. Feels like I just passed through customs at Seattle-Tacoma International."

Summers just grinned. Being part of the first contact party, had had its advantages; like bypassing customs. "The _Wreckers_ crew paged us through babcom, the stations internal communications system. They told us to wait for them here.

"I hate meetings, Lets hope this one's short." It was common knowledge on the _Columbia _that Lieutenant Lass's hatred of meetings was legendary. What wasn't common knowledge was why. Summers though, knew it stemmed from Lass's employment at a temping agency in the early 21st Century, shortly after she'd died, and been forced to endure numerous pointless meetings.

"I hate meetings as well," Ivonova admitted, reminding the others of her presence. "It's easier just to do it. Too much talk."

"It just reminds me of the 'get to know your coworker meetings or outings," Lass told Ivanova. "Those still haunt me. There are some things you never want to know about people, especially about your coworkers."

"Very true," Ivonova agreed, thinking of Garibaldi's second favourite thing in the universe and how he insisted on showing it to everyone; namely Daffy Duck.

"So how is the station?" Hoshi asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Pretty nifty," Summers told her. "We're going to see the zen garden after we make sure you meet up with the _Wreckers_."

"Zen garden?" Hoshi enquired, going all puppy eyed. "I can't remember the last time I saw one. Could I join you? Please." Commander Summers, technically being a senior officer could allow her to join the others.

"We sorta, kinda need a translator," George reminded her, upset that she was being forced to go to a meeting while Hoshi wanted to go off sightseeing.

"Don't worry, they speak Earth Standard," Kat's voice could be heard from behind them. "Besides we'll be there with them. If you'd come with us?"

"Earth Standard?" Lass enquired.

"Used to be called English," Kat told them.

The smile on Hoshi's face grew an inch wider. "So I take it that is a yes?"

"Ah, not fair," George muttered under her breath. "God this fucking pisses me off."

"Life isn't fair young one" Ivanova tried to sound serious and all knowing.

_Young one my ass, I'm older then your great great great great _grandmother, George thought to herself.

"Gee, thanks Obi Wan." She gave Mayweather a friendly shove. "Let's go Travis, follow Kat."

"But..." Travis protested, wanting to be introduced to the new people.

"Move it or loose it, Ensign," Lass said, glaring at the helmsman. Garibaldi shivered.

"Yes, sir," Travis said weakly. He'd heard that if you got on her bad side, she could make your life miserable; even if she was on another ship. The two followed Kat into the Zocalo.

"Wow," Ivanova said, impressed as she began leading them in the direction of the garden. "She's bossy all right."

"Yeah," Summers agreed. "She can get that way. Big mouth on her as well. She doesn't admit it, but she's a lot smarter than she lets on."

"Don't misunderstand me," Ivanova looked up feeling a bit of pride, she'd finally met someone whom had a very similar mentality as herself. "I meant that as a compliment. Maybe with more experience and wisdom she might reach the same level as I."

Summers laughed. "You haven't seen her at her best. This is her on her..." she said the words slowly to emphasise them. "...best behaviour."

"Looks like you got a rival," Garibaldi chuckled, getting a cold stare from Ivanova.

"Excuse my manners," Summer said, realising she hadn't made the introductions. "Lieutenant, junior grade, Hoshi Sato." Summers indicated the direction of the Zocalo. "That was Lieutenant, junior grade, Georgia Lass with Ensign Travis Mayweather."

"Michael Garibaldi, chief of security." He shook the young lieutenant's hand.

"I'm Commander Susan Ivanova, executive officer." She shook Hoshi's hand also.

"Pleasure," Hoshi said. "I can't wait to meet some of the aliens you have here."

"I hear your a linguist?" Garibaldi had heard that she was good at it as well.

"Yes," Hoshi nodded. "I can speak several languages and used to hold a professorship at a university in Brazil. I've been trying to learn Minbari, it's very interesting."

"Wow, that is a chore," Garilbaldi told her. "They have three languages. Worker, Warrior and Religious." Garibaldi had heard she was good, but most people rarely spoke more then two or three languages.

"Really," Sato said raising an eyebrow. "I only heard one dialect in the broadcasts." Garibaldi thought she looked like the proverbial kid in the equally proverbial candy store.

Wondering just how good, the linguist actually was, Ivanova switched to her native Russian. "I bet she thinks learning a language is easy." She chuckled.

"It is if you know how," Hoshi answered fluently in Russian. Ivanova raised her eyebrows.

"You speak Russian well," Ivanova complimented. "I'm impressed. You don't even have an accent."

"Thank you," Hoshi, unlike other people Ivanova had met, seemed earnest. It was refreshing to say the least.

"My," Summers said aloud. "The view is different from down here."

"Yeah," Folie nodded in agreement. "it looked so small from the sky tram." She paused, then corrected herself. "I mean the core shuttle."

"There is a sky tram?" Hoshi glanced up, spying two of the tracks that they ran along. She couldn't see any of the trams,

"There are three core shuttles," Folie told her.

"Commander Ivanova," a female voice could be heard saying from behind them. "Mister Garibaldi. A pleasure to see you here." Hoshi glanced in the direction of the speaker, noticing a slender woman with long dark hair and what appeared to be a bony crest running behind her head above level with her eyes.

"Ambassador Delenn," Ivanova greeted her. "Visiting the zen garden again, I see?"

"Yes I find it relaxing," Delenn said. Show paused, noticing the others that were with Ivanova and Garibaldi. They all looked to be human, well mostly human. One of them did seem to have more pointy ears than the others. "You have visitors?" Delenn asked; curious as to who these new people were.

"Yes," Ivanova explained. "These are officers from the two new ships who are visiting us."

"Ah," Delenn said smiling. "A pleasure to meet you. I am Delenn of the Minbari. Ambassador to _Babylon 5_."

"This is Lieutenant Alexa Folie," Ivanova began. "Lieutenant Hoshi Sato and Commander Tru Summers."

Delenn nodded politely.

"Sim'wa," Hoshi greeted her in Minbari. "It's an honour to meet you."

"Sim'wa," Delenn returned. She paused before reverting back to Earth Standard. "I am honoured that you speak my language."

"I am learning, your dress reminds me of a kimono, it is very pretty. You also have lovely hair"

Hoshi commented on the long dark hair the Minbari female wore.

"Thank you very much, your hair seems to be nice as well. Too bad you keep it tied up."

"Starfleet regulations" She explained.

"That language sounds a lot like Elven, as written by J.R.R Tolkien." Summers said absently.

"That's funny considering your ears," Garibaldi winced as he felt himself get poked in the ribs. "Commander..."

"Commander Summers is mostly human," Ivanova explained, figuring that Delenn would understand due to her transformation the previous year, becoming part human. Both Commander Summers and Delenn were hybrids of a sort. "Her ears are the result of her mixed heritage. She is part Vulcan."

"Really?" Delenn enquired. "What is this Elven? Who is Tolkien?"

"Elven is a language created by Tolkien, a writer on Earth, in the 1960s," Summers explained. "There are several dialects of it. They are derivatives of various Earth languages. Anyhow. It forms part of the mythos surrounding the Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit and The Sylmarian."

"Could you speak some of the language?" Delenn asked, sounding curious.

"I am not well versed," Summers admitted. "Though, I do know a poem which was translated into Western Common or English as the book is written in it. It is one of my favourites, though it is fairly sad. It's about an elven king, named Gil-galad."

"May I hear it?" Delenn asked, her curiosity rising rapidly.

"Very well," Summers nodded, recalling the poem:

"_Gil-galad was an Elven-king._

_Of him the harpers sadly sing:_ _the last whose realm was fair and free_ _between the Mountains and the Sea._ _His sword was long, his lance was keen,_ _his shining helm afar was seen;_ _the countless stars of heaven's field_ _were mirrored in his silver shield._ _But long ago he rode away,_ _and where he dwelleth none can say;_ _for into darkness fell his star_ _in Mordor where the shadows are."_

Delenn went pale as she heard the last line. _How do they know of the Shadows?_ Delenn thought rapidly. "What do you know about the Shadows? What is this Mordor?"

"Mordor was the realm of Sauron," Summers went on. "One of the great evils of Middle Earth. It is the focus of the Lord of The Rings. I have the books, and and the movies if you wish to take a look."

"Yes, I would very much like to," Delenn was both intrigued and surprised. _How can they know about the Shadows? _She thought again. The Earth of that period had only just started venturing into space. They shouldn't have had any genuine knowledge of aliens, let alone Shadows.

"I hope you enjoy them," Summers said. "I have to say, my favourite character is Legolas, though George's favourite is Strider or Aragorn, the ranger from the north." George had seen so many jerks in her long life that she confessed to Tru that she would have loved to have known someone as noble and cool as Aragorn.

"Ranger?" This was disturbing, yet very revealing. _Is that a subtle reference to the Anla'shok?_

"Yeah, the rangers are cool," Summers continued. "They fought the evil that came from the shadows of Sauron and Mordor. They walked the paths less travelled." As she spoke, Summers had noticed the colour draining from Delenn's face. "Are you okay, Ambassador?"

"Yes," Delenn nodded abruptly, trying to brace herself from the shock. How could have this human writer known so much, she needed to know more, and she needed to speak with the Vorlon, Ambassador Kosh. _This Tolkien must have had a Minbari soul_, Delenn realised. _I have to find out more about the books and movies she referred to._

**O-O-O**

"My God," Doctor Steven Franklin was mortified. He had arrived at the bar to take a break from all of the stress, and to meet the newly arrived Humans from another galaxy.

"They killed seven million people? Without any provocation? What kind of monsters are they?" Sheridan's reaction was echoed across the other EarthForce personal. They had suffered heavy casualties in the Earth/Minbari War and that only accounted for roughly two hundred and fifty thousand or so people. Even the attacks on the Narn by the Centauri did not cause that high of a death toll.

"The desperate kind of people," Captain Archer told them. "They were lied to by another race into believing that we would cause their extinction. That was the initial trial weapon, it was roughly the size of a shuttlepod."

"Smaller actually," Lieutenant Reed added. "The final third weapon was even larger than the _Enterprise_. The particle beam weapon the probe fired cut a swath of destruction from mid-Florida to Venezuela"

"That kind of firepower is scary, how did you beat them?" Sheridan's curiosity was rising.

"A lot of luck. We got help from an Andorian, Commander Shran, who helped us fight the escort fleet. We also managed to reason with the Xindi and defeat the real people pulling the strings.

"Your alien allies came to help you?" Sheridan said surprised. "During the Minbari War, our allies didn't."

"They weren't allies at the time," Archer admitted. "More like acquaintances. We'd had a few run ins with them. He 'owed me one'. We are allies now, however. They helped form the Coalition of Planets after we were attacked by a hostile race called the Romulan Star Empire."

"The Coalition of Planets?"

"Yes. United Earth, Vulcan, the Andorian Empire, Rigel, Denobula, Coridan, and Tellar." Archer looked at T'Pol to confirm he was correct. "They're the core members of the Coalition of Planets."

"The final weapon was destroyed before it could destroy Earth," Archer said. "Thank God."

"They built a death star?" Franklin was speechless.

"No, The _Death Star_ was much bigger, and I believe the effect of the planetary destruction was much quicker."

"You have Star Wars as well?" Franklin was puzzled how so much of their histories were the same.

"T'Pol, You have seen Star Wars?" Reed was equally amazed.

"I saw it on the ship," T'Pol said neutrally. "During one of the movie nights, with Commander Tucker."

"Who is that?" Franklin whispered into Reed's ear.

"Her boyfriend," he replied. "It's no use whispering, she can hear you from across the room."

"Well, he is one lucky bastard." Franklin tried to save himself.

"So," Sheridan asked. "You got any more stories from your conflict with the Xindi?"

"Well," Archer said thoughtfully. "There was the Battle of Azati Prime. I'll let Lieutenant Reed tell the story, since I was kind of indisposed at the time."

"Now," Sheridan said, taking a sip of his drink. "This I've got to hear."

"Well," Reed began. Even now almost two years later, he could still recall the events as clearly as if they had happened yesterday. "At the time, _Enterprise_ had been hiding behind a moon just outside of the systems detection grid..."

"_Four Xindi vessels," Reed reported from his station on the dimly lit bridge as T'Pol emerged from the turbolift."Closing fast."_

"_Hail them," T'Pol commanded, glancing at Ensign Sato at the communications station, as she took the command chair._

"_No response," Hoshi shook her head in frustration."_

_Glancing up from his station, Reed looked alarmed as he realised they intended to attack. "They're charging weapons."_

"_Hull plating," T'Pol commanded, somehow giving the order a sense of urgency without altering her tone or even raising her voice. "Ensign," she continued, addressing Ensign Mayweather at the helm. "Evasive manoeuvres."_

"_Aye, sir," Reed said, then paused as he saw something new. "Incoming!"_

_An instant later the ship lurched violently as a thunderous explosion could be heard echoing through the decks, forcing him to grab the edge of his console just so he wouldn't go flying. _

"_Return fire," he heard T'Pol order, flicking his eyes to the centre of the bridge, he saw her gripping the arms of the command chair. "Damge report."_

"_Helm is sluggish," Maywther called from the helm as he furiously entered new command and instructions. "Direct hit to the forward port RCS assembly. Attempting..." He broke off as the ship lurched again. "...to compensate."_

"_Comms. are being jammed!" Hoshi announced._

"_Hull plating at thirty percent," Reed said, firing the ships phase cannons as he locked a photonic torpedo on an insectoid ship. "Torpedo away... Direct hit!"_

"Sounds like you were being pounded," Sheridan said thoughtfully. "I don't think I'd have wanted to be there."

"You wouldn't have," Archer agreed talking a sip from his pint. "You should have seen the ship after I managed to get back to it."

"So," Franklin asked. "Where were you while your ship was being pounded?"

"Me," Archer said. "I was in a Xindi brig; trying to convince my captors to abort the launch of their weapon. At the time, I was completely unaware of the attack on _Enterprise_. It wasn't until the reptilians came back that I learnt of the attack." He paused. "Malcolm..."

"As you surmised," Reed nodded at Sheridan. "The battle was not going well for us. We'd lost our defensive and offensive systems. The helm wasn't responding and the hull had been torn up in too many places to mention..."

"_We've got breaches on C, D and E!"_

"_Close them off," T'Pol commanded him._

_Reed tried, but he wasn't getting any response. The ship had taken too many hits and the instructions weren't getting to their destinations. "The bulkheads aren't responding. We're venting atmosphere..."_

_He trailed off as the ship lurched violently. In the ceiling, the central lighting panel broke away and crashed to the deck in a rain of sparks forcing Mayweather to dodge away from the helm as fires broke out. The bridge was slowly filling up with smoke. "Another breach on C deck. E deck's de-pressurising! We can't take much more of this."_

_Reed broke off, as suddenly everything went calm. The deck was no longer shuddering and even the sound of rumbling explosions had ceased. The only sound was the crackling of overloaded consoles and and the whine of the atmospheric recycling systems struggling to clean the atmosphere. For almost a full ten seconds no one spoke. It was Reed who broke the silence. "They've ceased firing. Moving off, back into the system."_

"_Ensign," T'Pol said urgently. "Get us out of here."_

"_I don't think we're going anywhere," Mayweather said remorseful. "Thrusters are down."_

**O-O-O**

"High five," Lieutenant Lass exclaimed raising and slapping the palm of her hand against Ensign Mayweather's as he reciprocated the gesture.

"We did good," Maywether agreed, giving her a grin that showed off his pearly white teeth. "I think my father would have been proud of our negotiating skills." He paused and grinned again. "I mean, haggling skills."

"Are you kidding," Lass said humorously. "We kicked some ass."

"I must say I'm impressed with your tactics," Kat complimented as she joined the two Starfleet officers, approaching from behind them. "I don't think you're going to have any trouble getting contracts. In fact," she paused. "I think you're going to have more problems turning potential contracts away."

"I would not have expected something like this from someone so young," Mal agreed. He'd learned a few things from Lieutenant Lass and the dark skinned ensign as he observed them negotiating. It was a rare thing for him to learn something from someone else; usually, he was the one doing the teaching. A short distance ahead, was the Zocalo where they were to meet up with the others.

"Thanks for helping us set up the credit account," Lass said sounding grateful. Since she was glancing at Kat as the small group headed down a stair well, she didn't notice the tall dark haired and bearded human coming up the stairwell. A moment later, they collided.

After a moments recovery, she glared at him at him. "Would you look where you're going."

"Pardon," a thick English accented voice replied.

Lass looked up. _Hello tall dark and handsome; if Tru were here she'd be comparing him to Aragorn, _she thought. He was dressed similarly in that cloak thing he was wearing. Carefully, she schooled her features, trying to avoid looking like a smitten teenage schoolgirl. "Do you bump into people often?" She smirked.

"Actually, most people around here tend to look ahead, when walking." the English fellow remarked

_That is because they have something to look forward to_, Lass said to herself. "Did you include yourself in that remark?"

"I believe I said most people," the man replied.

"Most doesn't mean all," she rebutted. "It's part of the whole. Not the whole."

"Is that supposed to be clever?" he looked in her face, the dark piercing eyes.

"No. Clever would be learning to tie your shoe laces, which you need to do." A smirk formed, her eyes turned to face away, as George walked past him.

Marcus Cole looked down, remembering he wore belt buckle boots. She had gotten him, with the simplest trick in the book. Who was this blonde girl, she looked young, yet her presence gave an aura of age; way beyond what her years should. "Who is she?" he said to no one in particular.

"My hero," Mal answered passing him to follow Lieutenant Lass, or George as he was beginning to think of her.

A moment later, George caught up with Kat, who was walking ahead with Travis. "Do you know that guy?"

"No, I have seen him around though," Kat admitted, noticing the slight blush in Lass's cheeks. "He is quite handsome, isn't he?"

_Quite? Be still this heart of mine,_ George thought._ Good thing I'm undead._ "He's okay."

"Aren't we supposed to meet them at the pool area?" Travis was making sure he remembered correctly..

"Yes, something about renting the area for the promotion party for Lieutenant Hoshi Sato." Kat remembered.

"Ah, yes," they had delayed the celebration due to the adverse effects of hyperspace on Commanders T'Pol and Summers.

**O-O-O**

As Archer, Reed, Hernandez and T'Pol left the EarthForce only club with Sheridan and Doctor Franklin, Sheridan looked at the Starfleet officers. "Quite a story," he remarked. "I'll have to tell you the story of the_ Black Star_ some time."

"Thank you for showing us a great time," Hernandez shook Sheridan hand.

"Same here," Archer agreed.

"You're leaving?" Sheridan had enjoyed their company. He knew that Archer had barely scratched the surface on his discoveries while exploring space.

"Yes, I am afraid duty calls." As if to punctuate his words, his communicator beckoned him with its familiar chirp. "Archer here."

"_Sir,_" the voice of Ensign Maywether came through the device. "W_e have everything settled, we also set up a main credit account for the ships; once we get the roster to the station bank, we can assign individual credit accounts for the crew._"

"Good to hear," Archer said sounding pleased. Hernandez had been right after all about Lieutenant Lass. "I was worried Lieutenant Lass's bluntness might have caused issues."

"_No sir,_" Mayweather told him, pausing. "_She was a natural. We robbed them blind, thanks to her. She's as skilled as my father was... Maybe more._"

"I told you she was a great haggler." Hernandez smiled, feeling pleased with her junior officer.

"We're going back to the ship," Archer said. "What are your plans?"

"_We're going to meet up with Commander Summers and the rest; To rent the pool area._"

"For Lieutenant Sato's promotion party?" Hernandez enquired, remembering that the crew wanted to celebrate Hoshi's promotion and having to wait. Starfleet, though steadily growing, was still a fairly small organisation, so promotions were always big things, regardless of the rank involved. A party on the station, near a pool would be much more fun then what it would have been on-board either _Columbia_ or _Enterprise_.

"_Yes, sir._"

"Good, off to it then." Archer closed the communicator.

_Okay Okay I'll ask, _ "Captain," T'Pol asked. "I have a request."

"Yes, Commander?"

"I was wondering if I could stay on the station?" _No, I will not ask that bluntly_!

"Sure," Archer agreed. "You going to meet up with the rest of the group, I don't want anyone going off alone."

"That might be an option, I heard Commander Tucker wants to visit the station. He can accompany me."

_There happy?_

"That sounds reasonable," He knew that they had resumed their relationship, and he wished them well. "I'll make sure he takes the shuttlepod back when we return to _Enterprise._"

**O-O-O**

"I hope..." Garibaldi said as he escorted the psi cop, Alfred Bester, and his prisoner through one of the cargo bays on route to the docking bay. "...you don't mind the rush to get you off station, Mister Bester. But the doc says that injection is going to wear off soon. You know how it is."

"I do indeed," Bester agreed as he walked alongside the _Babylon 5 _security chief. "For what it's worth, Mister Garibaldi, I enjoyed working with you." Pausing, he turned and faced Garibadi. Coming from the direction of the docking bay, he could hear a pair of footsteps. "We made a good team. Perhaps we'll do it again sometime."

"Not a chance," Garibaldi said, stalking off as he silently indicated for the guards to carry on and escort Bester's prisoner to the docking bay.

Smirking, Bester turned to the new arrivals and indicated for the newer male psi cop to go with the guards. He wanted to talk to the female cop. "You couldn't have gotten here two minutes earlier?

"I tried to send to you," the female cop said. "But, I couldn't get through. Any reason I should have been here earlier?"

"Something has been going on," Bester commented as they started heading for the docking port. "I just wish I knew what."

"A first contact," she told him. "There's two unidentified ships holding position just outside the station."

"Ah, interesting," Bester commented. "We'll finish our business here later. You know, I said all along this Dust idea wasn't going to work. We spent five years developing this stuff, tying it into the latent genes and it hasn't produced one telepath of acceptable strength among the normal population. Oh, well. At least we got it out of the hands of aliens and back among humans where it belongs."

**O-O-O**

"Yes!" Trip exclaimed, nearly jumping out of the command chair on_ Enterprise_'s bridge. _Thank you, I love you,_ he mentally spoke to T'pol.

"Sir," the crewman at the helm asked, turning in his seat. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Trip said a little quickly, forcing himself sit sit back in the chair. "Why do you ask?" _I can't wait for them to get here. _Trip added, trying to sound calm as the crewman at the communications station indicated he wanted his attention.

"Sir," the crewman said. "There's a signal from Captain Archer."

"On speakers," _I can kiss you for this, in fact I will_, he mentally tried to project. "Having fun?" _Woo Hoo._

"_It's a very interesting _place," Archer commented. "_I'm about to come back over. But, Commander T'Pol is staying for a while. Want to join her?_"

"Yes, sir," he said. _And, no I am not acting like a child._

**O-O-O**

"Wait a minute, you're not from the Earth Alliance? Or even this galaxy?" Delenn enquired incredulously. _How can humans exist in two different galaxies? Is this a sign?_ "Do the Minbari exist in your galaxy?"

"Not as far we know," Commander Summers told her. "The only sentient species we found that exists in both galaxies are humans."

"Are you sure, you just don't look alike?" Delenn asked, knowing that some species could evolve to look like each other.

"We did do some tests to confirm it," Summers said. "There are a few minute genetic variations, but essentially we are the same species. That is not the only remarkable thing. Our planet's geography is the same, even the systems even are alike. We have the same type and number of planets."

"Really?"

"Our histories are the same, up to a certain point as well. The mid 20th century," Summers looked at Ivanova for confirmation.

"Yes, she is right," Ivanova confirmed. "We went through a few of our major historical events. In fact, their humanity went into deep space sooner than we did, you're from the 22nd Century if I am not mistaken."

"Yes," Summers nodded. "Our first contact was in the 21th century. April 5th, 2063 to be precise. That went rather peacefully. We have had a few conflicts, but we have managed to make peace with most of the hostiles."

Delenn nodded, remembering the words of her mentor Dukhat, who had felt that contact with humanity would be important to them. Perhaps this, she realised, was a way for the universe to assure the presence of the humans. They must have been brought here to help fight the Shadows in the upcoming war. That, Delenn knew, brought up another question._ Who had brought them to this galaxy? _Delenn was confused. But, she knew one thing. These people were a noble people; more so then the people of the Earth in this galaxy. They wanted to explore the galaxy, discover other races, make friends.

**O-O-O**

The refitting of the captured Raider Battlewagon was going well. They had sealed the hull breaches and repressurised the hull and were bringing everything else up to specifications. Including tweaking the output of the fusion drive and other systems to bring them up to United Earth standards. Well, as close as they could anyway. The fusion plants were quite large, yet their efficiency was something left to be desired.

"Apparently, this transphasic isotope of Potassium they refer to as Quantium-40, is what allows the passage into hyperspace," Lieutenant Commander McCoy was telling Tobin Dax, who was examining the drive with her. He was, she noted, getting paler by the minute.

"We need to get gravity plating on this thing," Dax complained. He didn't like working in zero-g environments; it gave him motion sickness. "Oh sorry, yes. They use it as a focusing element to channel energy to a specific point in space. This causes the tear they make into and out of hyperspace."

"So it works in a similar way to our deflector dish?"

"Yes, in principle," Dax nodded. "Though we would not be able to rip a hole into hyperspace with our dish; it lacks the required Quantium-40."

"Do you think we could incorporate Quantium-40 into the deflector?" McCoy wondered aloud. "That way we could get the same effect as the jump engines on this ship."

"Theoretically, yes." Dax nodded. "It's meant to focus energy. I would not want do anything to the dish until we can test it safely. The last thing we need, is to fry our deflector dish. What we need to do, is build a prototype and see if we can generate the jump point into hyperspace and vice versa." He broke off as

McCoy's communicator chirped, demanding her attention.

"McCoy here," she said after flipping the small device open.

"_Sir, you told me to call when the star position extrapolation program had finished it's calculations._"

"On my way," she informed the voice on the other end. "Let's go before you vomit all over the place." McCoy added as she put the communicator back in her pocket.

**O-O-O**

Tears of joy were coming down Lieutenant Hoshi Sato's face. "I can't thank you guys enough." They had not told her why they were headed to the pool, until she overheard George and Travis talking about what to get her as a gift. They were waiting outside, checking the facilities out, as George, Commander Ivanova, and surprisingly Ambassador Delenn had gone inside to help obtain the facilities.

"Hoshi, It's the least we could do, now that we can afford it." Travis commented

"And, we are closer to family then ever," Summers added.

"What do you mean?" Garibaldi commented. He'd just arrived back from escorting the notorious Alfred Bester off the station. He felt like he needed a shower. The guy made him feel dirty.

"While it is true that there are humans here, there is a gap in the culture," Alexa admitted. "We do have our extremists." The memory of John Fredrick Paxton and his Terra Prime movement was still fresh. "But most of humanity is not as xenophobic nor as prejudiced against differences as they are here." Seeing the hurt look on Garibaldi, she added. "Not saying that your people are bad, just different."

"So, are we still on to watch the Bruce Willis movies?" Garibaldi had never heard of the actor, until Lieutenant Lass swore he looked like him, which made a few of the others make the connection.

"Yes," Alexa confirmed. "At least, once I get permission for you to visit."

The door opened as the Ambassador Delenn and the others came out. "You really didn't have to."

"Think of it as a welcome to the neighbourhood present," Delenn said. Then asked. "What do you do at a pool party?"

"You mean besides, swim, and get smashed?" George got a cold stare from Tru and Ivonova.

"Swim?" Delenn paused, understanding dawning on her face. "I have never swam before."

"Then let us make up for you picking up the tab, and buy you some swim wear."

"Good idea," Kat smiled. "Lets go shopping, and I think I know just the place."

George spoke up suddenly. "You're invited as well, Commander Ivanova."

"But, I don't have any swim wear either," Ivanova complained

"Not a problem, we can get both of you something to wear. Which reminds me, I need to go dig up my swimming suit." Kat hoped she remembered were she put her swimming wear, it had been ages since she had had a swim.

_Ivanova in a swimsuit,_ Garibaldi thought. _Swell._

**O-O-O**

"Patch it through here, Crewman Mason." Archer ordered, then accepted the transfer as the incoming transmission alert popped up on his desktop. "Is everything okay over there?" The image of Hernandez appeared on the small desktop monitor in his ready room. She looked worried, he thought as he petted Porthos, who was sitting on his lap.

"_Well, Lieutenant McCoy's little project bore fruit._"

"Little project?" Archer enquired

"_Yes,_" Hernandez gave a subtle nod to Lieutenant Samantha McCoy her science officer, who took over.

"_I was trying to find _out," the _Columbia'_s science officer told him. "_If the wormhole took us through not only space but time as well._"

"How?"

"_Theoretically it wasn't that hard. It took the computers a while, but they managed it._"

"_Please explain,_" he hated it when people started spouting technobabble at him. T'Pol had learned to keep it at a minimum when briefing him.

"_We know the distance between us and the Milky Way,_" McCoy explained. "_The computer takes __star positions, as we know them based on the Vulcan star charts of the Milky Way, then I had the computer reverse extrapolate star positions, as they would be._"

"And?"

"_They didn't match up,_" McCoy told him. "_The stars were off; not by much, but enough. I was able to match the stars after I had it run the simulation past the marker point._"

Archer was getting impatient. "_So, what does this all mean?_"

"_If this is right, we are over two hundred years in our future. If we go by our calender, we're in the mid to late 24__th__ Century._"

"Oh boy," Archer said to himself.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Trip exited customs with an unusual smile on his face. Although a bit tedious, it was an experience he had only seen in the movies. T'Pol waiting for him at the reception area, was nursing a drink, and watching the crowds.

"Enjoying your tea?" Trip asked, greeting T'Pol with a hug from behind.

"Yes, very much," T'Pol acknowledged, trying to sound surprised at Trips presence. She wasn't. She'd spotted his scent and presence about a minute earlier, and could easily have turned to face him and would have; if he were Vulcan. But, she knew he liked to try and surprise her like this. And, even though she would never admit it, she did enjoy it.

"They seem to have a huge variety of aliens," Trip observed. The sheer number of variety of people who they had seen visit the station was astounding.

"Yes, that they do," T'Pol took a sip of her green tea. "Do you want something to drink?"

"How did you get the credits to buy a drink?" Trip enquired, a little surprised they'd managed to get hold of the local currency.

"The bounty," T'Pol told him factually. "It was issued to us as a cashier's cheque, which we were able to exchange into the local currency. I have some hard credits, as do the others." She paused, then asked again "A drink?"

"Ah, sure," Trip said, trying to think of a relatively generic drink and hoping it would be the same as back home. "I'll take a soda, if they have anything resembling a cola."

"One cola, please," T'Pol ordered.

"Can we make that to go?" Trip added.

"Sure," the tender replied grabbing a disposable cup.

"You want to go on the core shuttle, I take it?" T'Pol was watching the crowd, studying the differing patterns in behaviour. It was something she did as a matter of habit as she had been trained to do by the Vulcan Diplomatic Corps in unfamiliar environments to avoid possible blunders and as also as a tactic of self preservation. With this knowledge she be better able to blend in with those around her.

"Oh, yeah" Trip did enjoy watching the crowds walk by, but from the accounts of the Captain and the others, the view from the core shuttles was breathtaking. "I hear the view is amazing."

"And very romantic," T'Pol teased him, feeling the telepathic bond she and Trip shared get stronger with their close proximity to one another. They had discovered had been formed at the end of the previous year, and through it, she had learned that they could influence the others behaviour through it.

"Yes, that too," he admitted. "Is it a crime to want to be with you in a romantic place?"

Her look was all he needed for the answer.

"Here's the cola. That will be a quarter credit." Glancing around, she noticed that her customers were getting up to leave.

"Thank you," Trip said, taking a tenth credit from T'Pol and placing it on the table. "Let's go."

"Thank you for your patronage," the bartender called after them pocketing her tip.

"Why did you give her the extra tenth credit?"

"It is called a 'tip'," Trip explained. "It is common courtesy to tip the person who serves you, plus you usually get better service if you tip well." He took a sip of his cola.

"Ah," T'Pol said thoughtfully. "A way of thanking them for their good service?"

"Yes. The waiters usually make more in tips then what they hourly wages allow." Trip was thoughtful as he considered the dark brownish black drink he had. It was decent, though maybe a little bit too gassy. He had had better, but it was still better than what he'd expected much from an outpost this far out. The pair headed hand in hand towards the core shuttle.

**O-O-O**

"See you guys later," Travis said, excusing himself from the group. He had to go get ready for the party and also give the invitations to some of the crew who would no doubt want to join the fun.

"I need to go finish the trade we came to Babylon 5 for," Mal informed the group. "I will see you at the party?"

"Take care of yourself." George smiled at him, causing him to blush. He thanked the universe that a Narn's blush was not as apparent like other humanoids.

"I will. Take care of my sister," Mal said causing Kat to blush in turn, his protectiveness of his sister speaking volumes for his character.

"They will," Kat teased him. "Now go and make sure we don't go broke. We can't run a ship without that money."

"I am afraid we are leaving as well," Garibaldi announced.

"Catch you guys later?" Alexa joined Garibaldi. She really wanted to see the bike that he and a Minbari had built from parts Michael had collected over the years.

"Huh?" George complained. "I thought you wanted to go shopping?"

"Shopping is fun," Alexa said smirking. "But I want to see his Kawasaki Ninja." Alexa waved as they headed towards one of the stations transport tubes.

"Alexa wants to see his Kawasaki Ninja," George chuckled a moment later after the pair was far enough to be out of earshot. "Didn't know she had a wild side."

"Mister Garibaldi really has one," Delenn said thoughtfully. "My aide, Lennier, helped him assemble it." Delenn had seen the old Earth vehicle herself.

Ivanova shook her head, realising what Lass had implied. "Pervert."

"Come on," George said trying to save herself from her gaff. "I'm not the only one with the dirty mind here."

"No dear," Tru laughed. "You're just the one with a big mouth. Let's go get some swimwear for these two; speaking of which, does T'Pol have any?"

"No idea," Hoshi admitted. "It's not like we had a chance to swim during our missions. And Vulcan is very arid." She gave an inward wince, remembering the descriptions of the planet she'd heard from Captain Archer and Commander Tucker.

"Why don't we ask her?" Kat suggested.

"Good idea," Hoshi said as she took her communicator out of a pocket. "Sato to T'Pol."

**O-O-O**

"Jon, that's an understatement," Captain Hernandez looked at Archer. "Though from your mission logs, you're not that unfamiliar with the concept." From reading them, she'd learned of the time he'd been transported to the 31th Century. After that, she'd read the report of the time Archer and Enterprise had been transported back to an altered version of the Second World War. "The 31th Century, World War Two."

"No." Archer glanced down, giving Porthos a scratch. "Not like this. Everyone we knew, all our friends, family They're all dead."

"What can we do, but move on." Hernandez hated having to be the strong one. Inwardly, she was glad Columbia had a qualified psychotherapist in Doctor Summers. However, Enterprise didn't. It seemed that Doctor Summers was going to be doing a bit of double duty. At least until someone aboard Enterprise could be trained for that duty. At present, the closest thing to a psychotherapist Enterprise had was the Chef, and that wasn't even his job.

"True," Archer agreed. "Speaking of which, I was told by the bank that the personal accounts are set up. All we need now to fully activate them are personal identification cards, or 'Identicards' as they call them, for the crew. They said I should speak to either Commander Ivanova or Captain Sheridan about that."

"Do you you believe we were able to beat the Romulans?" Hernandez asked. They hadn't been at war when they left. But, they had known the war was coming. Despite knowing almost nothing about the Romulan Star Empire; they did know that they'd feel threatened by the very existence of the Coalition of Planets. She didn't even want to contemplate the notion of Earth or any of the Coalition of Planets signatories falling to the Romulans.

"I know we did." Archer knew that no matter what, they would win. They had to.

**O-O-O**

The view was truly amazing, then again so was the kiss they had been sharing for the past minute or so. Thanks to the bond, Trip was getting a unique perspective of what it was to be with the one you loved. He knew T'Pol was as well. The communicator rang, again.

"Ignore it," T'Pol's reaction surprised Trip as it would normally he that would be saying it.

"It could be an emergency," damn the Vulcan influence on him.

"Okay, I'll get it." She opened the communicator. "T'Pol here," she answered, sounding a bit irritated.

"Commander, we were wondering if you had any swim wear?"

"What? You called for that?" Trip knew that Hoshi had better sense.

"Were we interrupting something? We are having a pool party, and thought that the commander would need something to wear."

"Pool party?" Trip remembered "Ah." In his head, he was picturing T'Pol in a two piece, making T'Pol blush.

"No, I do not have any swim wear." She was glad that they did not see how flushed her face was.

"Why don't you join us at the Zocolo? We're at a boutique which sells them."

"We will be down in a few minutes," T'Pol replied as Trip grabbed her again closing the communicator muffling her reply a bit.

**O-O-O**

Hoshi was getting impatient as it normally did not take this long for T'Pol to answer.

"T'Pol here" She sounded irritated.

"Commander, we were wondering if you had any swim wear?" Sato asked, hoping that the irritation she had not upset her senior officer.

"What? You called for that?" Trip's loud voice could clearly be heard through the communicator.

"Were we interrupting something? " Sato asked, hoping they would understand."We are having a pool party, and thought that the commander would need something to wear."

"No. I do not have any swim wear." T'Pol's voice seemed more calm and paced then before.

"Why don't you join us at the Zocolo. We're at a boutique which sells them" Sato suggested.

"We will be down in a few minutes." T'Pol's reply was muffled as the signal was cut off.

"Looks like we know what they were doing when you interrupted them." Kat laughed, which prompted everyone except Delenn to join in, who was puzzled by the comment.

"What were they doing?" Delenn was curious.

"Ambassador if you will" Taking Delenn aside Susan Ivanova whispered in her ear trying to explain. Delenn's cheeks flushed a rose red.

**O-O-O**

"Play the visuals again," President Clark was mesmerised. The sheer acceleration of the ships and their speed were mind blowing. Whoever they are, they could outpace even the Minbari. Who knew what else they might have.

"They have made first contact with Babylon 5" His aide reported.

"Have they now?" Clark commented to himself. Why Babylon Five of all places, "Any useful information?"

"Yes sir, quite a bit," the aide informed him as he opened the report up. "It went quite well from what the general report states."

"So, are they human?" He had noticed the English script on the ship's Hull. NX-01 Enterprise.

"Yes sir."

"We don't have any lost colonies." All of the colonies are known and accounted for, thought Clark.

"No sir, we do not. This is hard to believe, but they're not even from our galaxy."

"Is this another case of humans being abducted by aliens?" The Vree were quite famous for this. The Vree ship the former United States had in their old Area 51 facilities was proof that they had visited Earth."

"No sir. They apparently evolved on their own Earth." Clark and several others noted that he emphasised 'own' and 'Earth'.

"There is another Earth?" What the hell, there is another Earth?

"Yes sir, apparently even their Earth's solar system is the same."

"Really?" Who would take the time to copy the Earth and it's system in two separate galaxies. What would their purpose be? Are we the chosen ones? Clark's ego rose a bit, He could imagine gloating to the other rulers. "What about their history?"

"From what I read of the notes, their history practically mirrors ours until the mid 20th Century."

"That is good, we have common ground." This will get me the manoeuvring room I will need to negotiate with them. "This seems too fantastic to be true."

"Yes, though their story needs to be checked up on. Unfortunately the distance makes it impossible to confirm if another Earth exists."

"Then how in the hell did they get here?" He wondered. Unless they could travel hyperspace without the use of a beacon system, or their beacon system is far more advanced. From the observed acceleration rates, the speeds their ships could theoretically reach would translate to very fast travel time; Even in the turbulent void of hyperspace.

"A wormhole. They were examining it. Apparently the wormhole was very unstable and pulled them here."

"Hmm. So their stuck here. We can use that." Yes, he thought. They would need parts, repairs. Complimentary of course. He did know one thing. Bribery always worked.

"We could just claim they're under our jurisdiction as humans and claim their technologies," Clark's aide Dan Bush spoke up.

Clark frowned. "Even I'm not that rash," Dan sure was annoying at times, Clark knew Dan's father had contributed a good deal to his campaigns earning Dan a seat on the advisory board."If we act too aggressively we can loose everything."

"What do you mean?" Dan was puzzled. That ship was tiny, he was sure they could 'blow it out of the sky!'

"Dan, you saw the encounter. They can easily just go away. We can't even see them with scanners. How can we be sure that an alien power won't offer them shelter and other things in exchange for their technologies? We can't risk the others gaining them."

"Then we should plan to destroy them if they should." His understanding of the situation was simple. If these ships could threaten Earth, then they should be wiped out. And it had the benefit of creating a new enemy to fire up the people. "We could say they are collaborators who helped the Minbari during the war..."

"Dan, I think you need to take some time off. To get some objectivity. These are humans, son, humans that are stranded. They may have things we want, but we can get more with honey than vinegar." Clark was looking at the junior and younger politician very frankly. In political terms, he was telling him to back the hell off.

The younger man nodded after a long pause. "Will I see you at the ranch?"

"Probably not this weekend. Maybe after you've had some time to cool off," Clark vaguely promised.

After Dan had been escorted out by one of his bodyguards, he said to himself, "I won't tolerate that kind of stupidity." Screw him and his holier then though bullshit, he was the reason why the recent news had leaked about the assassination attempt. "Now, I see the _EAS Invincible _will be going to Babylon 5 there to meet them soon?"

They need to play clean-up, Clark thought furiously. Fortunately Sheridan had been a good boy and made a positive impact. Sheridan was a good officer, he admitted to himself. And a war hero. The question though, was if Sheridan's loyalty was to him. Sheridan very likely presented his own prejudices towards him and his office to the newcomers. If so this would also would have to also be fixed.

"Yes, sir."

"Well, make sure the Captain and his new XO make a better impression this time."

"Yes, sir."

**O-O-O**

Trip walked around the shop, it was a rather nice place. There were a lot of women's clothing, as the store also sold them.

"Are you dressed yet?" he nagged.

"I would not call this dressed," T'Pol exited the changing room, wearing the mint green two piece Trip had picked out for her.

"Wow!" Was all Trip could say, as he fought desperately not to drool.  
A bunch of fox whistles later, he added. "That looks good on you."

"Thank you" She replied, wishing it covered more skin, like the ones Delenn and Ivonova had picked out.

"I didn't know Vulcans look that human," commented Delenn was happy with her choice which Ivonova helped pick, it being much, much more conservative.

"We look very much alike. In general, pure Vulcans are three times stronger then humans, more agile,and have better endurance," Tru informed the group.

"Don't put yourselves down. I know that your brother has great endurance." George smiled while slapping Tru's back, instantly realising her mistake. Dread came to her as she realised what she inadvertently just revealed to Tru.

"You slept with Jason?" The shock in Tru's voice was clear.

"Well," George searched for something better to say, failing utterly. "Yes."

"How could you sleep with my brother and not tell me?" How could she keep this a secret? They told each other everything!

"Sorry?" George had hoped that her indiscretion would not have come out like this. "He was really, really good."

"You..." Tru's voice trailed off. She was looking at her side."My brother..." realising that George was over one hundred years older then Jason. She looked straight in George's face. "Cradle robber!"

"Umm. Isn't Jason your older brother?" Alexa pointed out as she had met him. He was cute and tall but not her type. He was too geeky. She could not count how many G., Transformers, and comic books he had. He was a true fanboy if she ever met one.

"Yes, and?" Though she was glad her uber fanboy geek of a brother had gotten himself laid, it didn't change the fact that it was with her best friend! This did explain that year when Jason had suddenly gotten such a big confidence boost.

"You're thirty nine? George is in her early twenties; it would make him the 'cradle robber.' No?" Tru was a great person but she could be such a ditz at times.

"Oops." She had almost blown George's cover. "Yes, my mistake."

"You're thirty nine?" Ivanova was shocked as she could not help but stare at Tru.

"Vulcan's age differently then humans. Commander T'Pol, for example, is sixty-six years old." Hoshi added as she knew a few things about the Commander from her mind meld earlier that year.

"I am sixty one," Delenn said feeling young for a change.

"Wow." Ivanova looked at the two. Tru looked like a teenager, and T'pol in her mid twenties. That is scary, I could use some Vulcan or even Minbari genes, she thought in a way that would be quite blasphemous to most Earth First members.

"Tru, are you related to Jason Kal-El Summers?" Hoshi asked, remembering the meetings involving that person's persistent nature and the constant stream of messages.

"That is him," Tru nodded, recalling that he had taken the middle name, "He is a BIG superman fan." She missed him, despite his obsession over everything sci-fi and comics.

"I believe he was sending inquiries to Captain Archer. He kept asking if the captain could talk Crewman Daniels into getting him a 'Legion of Super Heroes' ring"

"Don't mention him to Captain Archer, ever!" Hoshi remembered reading the messages.

"I remember that name as well," Trip said, suddenly thoughtful. "Didn't he try to send in designs to Starfleet Command based on something called 'Iron man'?" Trip remembered how the bulky and impractical all the designs were. "He even had submitted plans for transforming robots for future space fighter designs."

"Oh God!" Tru said blushing a deep red. She knew he was a bit obsessive. But that was going over the top. "He did that? I'll kill him. Kill him I tell you!" Emphasising her words with her hand gestures "I will reach out with the force and choke him!"

"And she calls him a Geek. I can't believe I slept with that dork," Remembering the event. "No wait, I take that back." George paused a moment, glowing in the memory. "Commander, did he ever send in that 'Mercury-class Battlestar design?"

Trip just rolled his eyes; he didn't even want to go there.

"Was he that good?" Hoshi's curiosity had getting the better of her.

"Ten hours straight, after I stopped him from babbling on about obscure comics . Duct tape rules!" George grinned.

"I don't want to hear this!" Trip clasped his ears.

"Neither do I!" Tru agreed. The last she wanted, was to hear about her brothers sexual exploits.

"These human mating rituals are very strange," Delenn observed.

"Agreed," T'Pol replied as she nodded.

**O-O-O**

"Shall we wait for the others?" Marcus sat on the chair facing John Sheridan's desk.

"No, We will however update them in the next official meeting as this is an unofficial one," Sheridan replied.

"Besides they are shopping for swimming suits," Dr. Franklin added. "They are having a promotion party at the pool"

"What?" The thought of Susan Ivanova in a bikini made Marcus Cole smile. "I hope she gets a two piece..." Realizing the seriousness, he gets back on topic. "Sorry, got off track. On to the new comers shall we?"

"They seem like nice people. The Vulcans look oddly human, almost elven," the doctor added. "I hope I can speak with their medical officers, and do

"Elven? Really?" Marcus had never seen an alien who resembled Earth myths before.

"Yes, Commanders T'pol and Summers look very elven. Summers looks more human although as she has human ancestry."

"Her eyebrows are more curved," observed the doctor.

"Yes, she has a softer look to her," admitted Sheridan.

"I believe i ran into a group of them a while ago. A short blonde bumped into me. She was quiet rude but had quiet a presence." She felt like an old soul. An aura of depth unlike any he had felt before.

"I believe you mean Lt. Georgia Lass. She has a mouth on her." Garibaldi entered the room at a trot. "Hi, guys."

"Thanks for making it, and yes she does." Sheridan wondered who would win in a swearing match, her or a drunken sailor. Hmm. Actually, get her drunk and she probably _was_ a drunken sailor.

'Georgia Lass.' Now marcus had a name to the face.

"I heard you were showing off your bike to Lt. Folie from the _Colombia_?"

"Yeah! She loved it. I am planning on visiting their ship to watch some old 20th century movies we don't have on our earth. They star an actor named Bruce Willis who Lt. Lass swears looks like me," Garibaldi said with a laugh.

"Lucky," Dr. Franklin's voice could barely be heard.

"What?" Garibaldi asked, a bit puzzled.

"Never mind." He had not meant that to be heard.

Whispering in Franklin's ear, "Is she pretty?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Gentlemen..." Sheridan's patience was not infinite and the meeting was not for this.

"Pardon, sir."

"Now, the reports you got were not the ones we sent to Earth. We kept certain things private."

"Such as?" Garibaldi asked with a slight frown.

"The Vulcans are tactile telepathic."

"Both of them?"

"Yes, it appears to be a trait their entire species are natural touch telepaths."

"That is amazing Telepathy is a rare occurrence in all the races we know of. Why keep it a secret? It is not as if we have not met alien Telepathy before," Marcus Cole added.

"They can successfully interbreed with humans. Other aliens, to our knowledge cannot." Dr Franklin was amazed as inter-species breeding usually lead to a sterile offspring, as with mules.

"Also their offspring inherit the abilities, the two women might be in danger of kidnapping for egg harvesting or worse." Sheriden looked around as they took that in. "I would not suggest letting G'kar know about them. Be circumspect."

"Do we know how strong they are? Compared to our telepaths?" Marcus asked as he leaned up against the wall of the office near the door. Just in case.

"Commander Summers was able to sense that Susan is a latent telepath," Sheriden added, not masking his surprise to the news that Susan was a latent telepath.

"Another thing, Vulcans are physically much stronger and faster then we are," Dr Franklin explained in admiration.

"Not a surprising, Minbari have a similar advantage." Marcus has had many bruises from combat drills which accounted for his testimonial.

"It is a good thing they are peaceful. T'pol could probably break one of us in half if she wanted to." Dr. Franklin frowned at that. Why was humanity generally at a lower level of ability physically? The universe was not kind in that manner.

"Reading up on how United Earth," the term sounding funny to him, "started and is fairing. They are doing much better then we are, even though we have been in space much longer." Sheriden liked the idea of humanity, even if it wasn't his humanity, succeeding.

"Yes, two hundred years for us, also we didn't have a devastating World War, when the Centauri made first contact we already had a sizable space fleet." Garibaldi knew due to his friendship with Londo that they had not invaded earth as it would have been a waste of resources and manpower.

"They have had interstellar travel capabilities for roughly a hundred years. Ironically this is the same as us. Though like you mentioned we already had a space fleet, they started almost from scratch."

"Their colonies are very self sufficient and are prospering," Franklin spat out angrily. " I knew the mega corporations were limiting our growth." His hatred of the Megacorps was unsurprising, as he felt their control of money was one of the 'big problems' of the day.

"Lt. Folie told me their Colonies have state rights in their government. They are autonomous and are able to levy their own laws." Garebaldi, a native martian knew how important this issue was to his mars.

"Really?" Marcus knew that colony worlds did not receive equal rights in this area of space. Colonies ended up being small holes which where taken advantage of by the homeworlds.

"Yes, their government appears to be very amiable and progressive" Sheriden wished his own government would follow suit.

"This collation of planets they formed seems very promising." Dr Franklin observed.

"Yes, they have shown me their charter. They managed to unite many races to defend against a common foe" Sheriden commented.

"Something we have yet to do" Marcus coleThinking of the shadows and the looming war.

Garibaldi snapped his fingers "I forgot to mention. You know that we monitor all outgoing and incoming transmissions to the station now."

"Yes, the new policies of President Clark" The name leaving a bad taste in Sheriden's mouth

"We saw the starfleet personal use their communication devices several times"

"Yes, I was surprised as most personal comm systems lack the power to transmit from inside the station" They where much more advanced then the humans of his earth.

"That isn't the only thing. There is no log of their transmissions. It is as if they never happened. Whatever they use, it is neither em based nor tachyon based. Our system did not detect any transmissions"

"that could draw up a red flag with the Ministry of peace or Nightwatch"

"that is why I doctored the records," Garibaldi knew he probably broke regulations but something like this would not be good in the hands of the ministry of peace or Clark. "I hope you do not mind sir"

"No, I will ask Captain Archer, Hopefully they will be forthcoming with it." It was a leap of faith to trust Archer, and this would help solidify that trust. 

**O-O-O**

The mood on the Invincible was sombre. Captain James McTaggart was very quiet, and rarely spoke, and only to give orders. He kept wondering what the hell possessed him to take such a hard line approach to that encounter with the Enterprise. Performance anxiety, he guessed.

Pissing people off in a first encounter never ends well. Fear had gotten to him, as the new political officer had been very active in rooting out people who where not 100 % loyal.

Andrew Zimmerman looked at his friend and never seen him this withdrawn before.

"Jim, you really need to relax" Andy was worried about his friend, and he hoped to help mold him into the great captain he felt the ship deserved.

"But I messed up, really badly, even the president has demanded I apologise. I am lucky I still have my command"

"Do yourself a favour and learn from this. Acting out like that, may have earned you brownie points from the political officer, and I know how they can hurt"

"thanks, I don't know what I would have done without a good friend like you?"

"Jim, I have, and will always be, your friend" 

**O-O-O**

"Sheridan go" the captain tapped his link

"Sir, captain Archer for you on babcom"The voice of the comm officer currently on duty informed him

"Patch him through to my desk", he saw the image of the captain pop up, "Hello captain archer"

"Hello captain, I was wondering what the regulations are for bringing animals on babylon 5?"

"Err.. Animal?"

"Yes, I want to take Porthos, my pet beagle for a walk. He could use the exercise, and the garden area seemed like a good place for it."  
"You have your pet dog with you?" Pets where never allowed by regs in the earth alliance did not allow for pets.

"yes, I had to go through hoops, but I managed to get him on board."

"Tell you what captain Archer. How about I join you and play guide while you walk him."

"That would be wonderful, Please call me Jonathan."

"Call me John then." archer was looking forward to talking more with the captain after their initial contact. The prospects of the two ships to help was very good towards the cause, and he would get a chance to ask some questions. 

**O-O-O**

"On this occasion we congregate to congratulate the new lieutenant, Hoshi Sato on her promotion!"  
"Go hoshi!, go hoshi go go go hoshi" George was cheering  
"Looks like you got a cheering section Lieutenant."  
"Let us enjoy ourselves and hope for more occasions like this one. Thank you" Lt Sato picked up her glass to toast the occasion. 

**O-O-O**

"Nice dog" Sheriden was petting the beagle, amazed at that Archer was able to get permission to take his dog with him.  
"Thank you, he is family" He brushed the dog "Aren't you Porthos. At least this time you won't get me in trouble"  
"Trouble? how?"  
"We had an adventure when he accidentally desecrated an alien garden. It made for an interesting first contact" A smile came to archer.  
"I wanted to be an Explorer when I signed onto earthforce, it is still a dream of mine"  
"I hope one day, it becomes a reality for you"  
"thank you." Remembering his priorities "I do have a question for you, as we have a puzzle on our hands, which you may solve"  
"Ok, shoot"  
"We saw your crewmen, communicate to your ships several times"  
"yes"  
"We didn't detect any signals with our internal security systems. What do you use?"  
"Well, our communication technologies are subspace based, though we do have and can use EM and tachyon based "  
"Subspace? I am only familiar with hyperspace" the term was foreign to Sheriden.  
"Subspace is a layer of reality which is distinct from hyperspace. We use it to for communication. Many of our technologies are derived from its properties. You would have to ask trip for a better description"  
"Thank you for telling me." That was surprisingly painless  
"I hope we find a way back home, though a part of me enjoys being in a new enviroment and a new era"  
"A new era?"  
"Yes, we have done calculations. From our earth's point of view, we are in the 24th century."  
"That is roughly 100 years ahead of us" The implications where shocking, as their earth was older. Even if by 100 years, it implied a lot.  
"yes, even if we do manage to find a way back, we are caught outside our own time. I hope we have an earth to go back to." The Romulan war came to mind, as did the earth which was destroyed from the future.  
"I am sure your earth is safe and sound" Sheridan assured archer.  
"If we don't go back, I hope we can make this earth a home for us"  
"Earth is different then what you are used to?"  
"Yes there are many differences, yet many similarities. We are the same animal" Archer admitted, knowing that given the different circumstances, his humanity would be in the same pot that the earth alliance is in. 

**O-O-O**

"That was fun"  
"Indeed" Tru had fun at the party. She had brought Delen the books and the movies for Lord of the Rings. The ambassador had been eager to get them. Transferring them to the data crystals had been tricky would get easier with time 

**O-O-O**

Delen hurried towards Ambassador Kosh's quarters, with copies of the material at hand. She had no idea what the reaction of the Vorlon would be.  
"We have humans from another galaxy. They know too much! I have brought some interesting materials"  
"The children of the preservers have arrived, the circle is strenghtended"


End file.
